Rajeev's Question Answers

A: I think you are talking about the Hydraulic hose of the free fall lifeboat davit. It is not a requirement to change the Hydraulic hoses of the lifeboat Davit. MSC Circ 1206, Rev.1 gives the guidelines for conducting maintenance on lifeboats and it suggests to check the condition of Hydraulic hoses.The change of Hydraulic hoses is however considered to be a best practice. A lot depends upon the hydraulic hoses. If you get leakage, you loose the secondary method of lowering lifeboat. Most of the companies has this as a 5 yearly job in the PMS even when there is no statutory requirement to change the hose.

A: You can read detailed guide for dealing with nav warnings by clicking this link. how to deal with nav warningsIt is OK to get a missing nav warning from the internet but it is not OK if you are always getting all of your nav warnings from the internet. As this can give an impression that your Sat-C equipment is not working.

A: Economical speed is the rpm at which an engine can be run where consumption of fuel is minimum. Now many of us confuse this with specific fuel consumption and other technical terms like this. Economical speed is for saving the fuel and at what rpm we can save the fuel most. At Dead slow ahead.If we need to go from point A to point B, and if we run the engine at dead slow ahead, the total consumption to reach point B will be lesser than other higher rpm like slow ahead and half ahead and so on.But we cannot run the engine at dead slow ahead for longer period of time as we don't want out blower to cut in/Cut off. The minimum rpm at which we can run the engine for longer period is the rpm where blower cuts off. We take another 2 rpm for fluctuations.So the economical speed is the rpm where blower cuts off + 2 rpm for fluctuation.

A: SOLAS gives the regulations and not detailed procedures. The requirement for not testing GMDSS equipment during cargo operations is given in the ISGOTT. As per ISGOTTISGOTT 2.7During medium and high frequency radio transmission (300 kHz — 30 MHz), significant energy is radiated which can, at distances extending to 500 metres from the transmitting antennae, induce an electrical potential in unearthed ‘receivers’ (derricks, rigging, mast stays etc.) capable of producing an incendive discharge. Transmissions can also cause arcing over the surface of antenna insulators when they have a surface coating of salt, dirt or water. It is therefore recommended that:All stays, derricks, and fittings should be earthed. Bearings of booms should be treated with a graphite grease to maintain electrical continuity.Transmissions should not be permitted during periods when there is likely to be a flammable gas in the region of the transmitting antennae.Low energy transmissions, such as are used for satellite and VHF communications, do not produce the same sources of ignition. ISGOTT 4.11.2 The use of a tanker’s radio equipment during cargo or ballast handling operations is potentially dangerous (see Section 2.7). This does not apply to the use of permanently and correctly installed VHF and UHF equipment, provided the power output is reduced to one watt or less.The use of VHF/UHF radio equipment as a means of communication should be encouraged whenever possible.

A: Load density of a cargo tank defines how much cargo we can load in a tank. This depends upon how strong the tank top is. The load density of a tank is provided by the class during yard delivery of the ship.For dry cargo ships the load density of the tank top is given in t/Sq Meter. That is how many tonnes can be loaded in one square meter of tank top area.Let us take a simple example. Say load density of tank top of a bul carrier is 12 tonnes/sq meter. The length of the cargo hold is 30 meters and breadth of the cargo hold is 20 meters. So how much total cargo we can load in this tank.Total cargo that can be loaded in this tank = Length x Breath x Load densitySo Maximum cargo = 30 x 20 x 12 = 7200 Tonnes.Now if the stowage factor of the cargo to be loaded is 0.9 m3/Tonne.So the volume of the cargo that can be loaded in tank will be 7200 x 0.9 m3. That mean we can load 6480 m3.We know the length and breadth of the tank, so we can calculate the maximum height to which this cargo can be loaded.Maximum Height = 6480 / 600 = 10.8 MetersSo load density helps the ship staff to know to what height a cargo can be loaded.On tankers, load density is given as to the maximum density of the cargo that can be loaded.For example, if load density of a tanker ship is given as 1.2 t/m3, it means that we can load the tank to full if the load density is lesser than or equal to 1.2 t/m3.Let us say that volume of the tank is 3000 m3. This means that in this tank we can load maximum 3600 tonnes (3000 x 1.2 tonnes). Now it does not matter which cargo we load, we can never load more than 3600 tonnes of cargo in this tank.Now if we have to load a cargo of density 1.4 t/m3, we can load only 2571 m3 (3600/1.4 m3) of this cargo. From the ullage table (or sounding table) we can calculate to what level we have to load this cargo.  

A: Scantling draft is the maximum draft at which the ship can withstand all the loads safely. In other words, it is the draft at which the strength of the ship is built.It may or may not be equal the tropical draft (Maximum to a ship can load as per load lines).Let us say a ship's maximum depth is 15 meters. Its tropical draft is 12 meters. Let us say based on the strength of the ship, we calculate to how much draft this ship can be loaded and still the stresses on the ship will be in safe zone. Let us say we find this draft as 13 meters.Off course we cannot load upto 13 meters. This is because as per load line convention we can only load upto 12 meters. But if it is safe to load upto 13 meters draft, why we are allowed to load only upto 12 meters. This is because load line drafts are not based  on the draft that we can load. Rather it is based on the minimum freeboard we need to have at all conditions.

A: To understand the process of annealing, we first need to understand the Ductile and brittle behaviour of metals.Ductility: Ductility is the ability of the metal to be stretched into a wire without breaking when tension is applied in it.Brittleness: Brittleness is the opposite of ductility.So when a piece of metal is stretched, how soon it break defines if the metal is brittle or ductile.But why this is important in shipping ? A ship at sea is subjected to lot of stress. If a ship is made of brittle material, the material will brake (or develop cracks) under this stress.Annealing is a process where we heat a metal to a certain temperature or color and then allow it to cool down naturally. This makes the metal more ductile and soft, which means that the metal can be cut/shaped easily and also the metal will not break easily.  

A: Marine insurance act defines the "insurable interest" as i) every person has an insurable interest who is interested in a marine adventure. ii) In particular a person is interested in a marine adventure where he stands in any legal or equitable relation to the adventure or to any insurable property at risk therein, in consequence of which he may benefit by the safety or due arrival of insurable property, or may be prejudiced by its loss, or by damage thereto, or by the detention thereof, or may incur liability in respect thereof. Let us simplify this.If a car owner takes two car insurance covers for the same car, can he be considered to have interest in his car ? No. He will benefit if the car is lost, damaged or destroyed.This is also the case if the car owner has only one insurance but insurance value is more than the present value of the car.The idea of insurable interest is that insured should suffer a financial loss with the loss or damage to the property or risk insured. In case of ship that left for a voyage, it should be of more benefit for the ship owner if the ship completes the voyage safely than if she does not.There have been cases where insurance company refused to pay the compensation claiming that ship was deliberately sunk by the ship owner.In these cases the insurance company would claim that ship owner had no insurable interest in the ship.

A: Roll period is how quickly a vessel return to upright position while rolling. So it is the time a ship takes from upright position to going to a particular angle on port side and then going to a angle on starboard side and then again returning back to upright position (zero list position) during natural rolling.For example let us say a ship is rolling to around 20 degrees on both side and it is rolling in the following cycle.1) From upright position to 20 Degrees to port side2) From 20 Degrees port to 20 Degrees to starboard side3) From 20 Degree starboard to upright position If the Ship takes 10 seconds for this cycle to complete then rolling period of the ship is 10 seconds.One of the formula for calculating roll period is So the roll period depends upon the Beam of the vessel and GM of the vessel. To a certain extend it also depends upon the ship size and hull design.

A: There is one principle difference between Statutory certificates and Mandatory certificates.Statutory certificates are required by law (Statute). Sailing a ship to the sea without any of these certificates will be like breaking the law.Mandatory certificates are mandatory for a particular trade or for some other reasons. For example "Certificate of financial responsibility" (COFR) is mandatory for the vessel trading in US. For a Non-US flagged ship it is not statutory to have COFR but it is mandatory for entering and operating in US waters.Mandatory certificates are also called obligatory certificates.All the certificates that are required for uninterrupted trading of the vessel (Statutory and mandatory certificates) are called trading certificates.Read in more detail on this blog.

A: This is very interesting and unusual situation. For the sake of clarity, let us see what we are talking about here.Normally, the line for annex 1 and annex 2 overboard discharge looks something like this. This is not the exact line up but just a basic line up to show the location of ODME overboard valve which operates automatically through the computing unit of ODME.Now on some ships (though very rare) this line diagram would look like this !!!The only problem with this line up is that even for discharge of Annex 2 slops, we need to operate the ODME. If the ODME valve is not open, we will not be able to discharge the annex 2 slops through annex 2 line.I have personally seen this type of arrangement on one of the ship during yard delivery of the vessel. But when I saw the drawings, the ODME valve was located at correct position. That is at such a position that we would not require the ODME to operate for annex 2 slops.We got the pipelines corrected as per the drawings. So if you have this kind of arrangement on board, the first thing we need to do is to check the approved drawings to confirm that the actual line up matches with the drawings.If it does not then we either need to correct the drawings or modify the lines. Modifying the lines would be the more appropriate option in this case.Even if the drawing also shows the complicated line up then the we should discuss the option of modifying the line up with class approval at least during the next dry dock.But till the time it is not corrected, we can proceed as follows.For discharging the annex 2 slops, We can manually over-ride the ODME. In the ODME print out and in the port log we can log down the reason for over-riding the ODME.In my opinion, the entry into the Oil record book would not be required in this case.Weather you go ahead with this plan or some other plan, it would be better that the plan is sent to your office and have it approved by them. This can be done through email or marine superintendent signing at the bottom of the procedures.This email or the procedures can then be displayed in CCR or near ODME.

A: Yes. If you are a navigating officer, It will be counted. There is no way someone can know for sure if the ship was dry docked during your tenure.If you have been to dry dock, you just need to make sure that you take the seatime letter for the full tenure on that ship and it should not exclude the period of dry dock.If you are a deck cadet then as per UK MCA (See this link for more details), the dry dock period or lay up period of the ship should not be more than 2 months. If it is less than 2 months, it is considered as the valid seatime.  As per Indian MMD (See the link), a reasonable time in dry dock is allowed as seatime, even though MMD has not defined reasonable time.Hope it helps..

A: The need to differentiate the oils as persistent and non-persistent was because we need to know which oil are difficult to clean. Civil liability convention 92 and fund convention 92 applies to the pollution involving persistent oil only. Why so ? Simply because persistent oil leave a thick slurry of oil on water and are difficult to clean or remove. Or persistent oils break up and dissipate more slowly in the marine environment and usually require a clean-up operation. Crude oil is one example of persistent oil. Non-persistent oils will dissipate easily and quickly through evaporation and so these oils will not require an active response to clean up.  This is more of subjective definition. The more precise definition is given by the EPA as per whichNon-persistent oils include:A petroleum-based oil that, at the time of shipment, consists of hydrocarbon fractions at least 50 percent of which by volume, distill at a temperature of 340 degrees C (645 degrees F); and  at least 95 percent of which by volume, distill at a temperature of 370 degrees C (700 degrees F); and  A non-petroleum oil, other than an animal fat or vegetable oil, with a specific gravity less than 0.8. Persistent oils are oils that do not fall under above category.Because carriage of non-persistent oils have comparitively lesser risk, the P&I clubs in certain conditions allow certain premium return if the ship has carried non-persistent oils.  

A: There are certificates and plans that are required as per various IMO conventions. A list of these certificates and plans can be found on the IMO website by clicking here. Apart from these certificates, manuals and plans, there are few drawing and plans that are required as per the ship's classification society. International association of classification societies (IACS) sets the rules for its member classification societies to follow.  Most of the major classification societies are the member of IACS and thus adopts the classification rules of IACS. As per the rules of IACS there are minimum list of drawings and plans that are required onboard for a vessel to enter into a classification society and for the issuance of certificate of class. These drawing are as per follow 1. For All Vessels  Main Plans General Arrangement plan Capacity Plan Hydrostatic curves Loading Manual, where required Damage stability calculation, where required Steel Plans Midship Section Scantling Plan Decks Shell expansion plan Transverse bulkheads plan Rudder and Rudder stock Hatch Covers (if applicable) Machinery Plans Machinery arrangement plan Intermediate, Thrust & Screw Shafts Propeller Main Engines, Propulsion gears and clutch systems Main Boilers, superheaters and economisers Bilge and Ballast Piping diagrams Wiring Diagram Steering gear system Piping & Arrangement and Steering gear manufacturer make and model information Torsional Vibration Calculations For new vessels, Torsional vibration calculations are required 2. For Vessels with Ice class Notation Plans for flexible coupling and/or torque limiting shafting devices in the propulsion line shafting 3. For Oil Tankers Pumping arrangement and plan for drainage of cofferdams and pump rooms 4. For ships with Unattended Machinery space Instrument and alarm list Fire alarm safety plan List of Automatic safety Functions Function testing plan 

A: Let us say that you are loading in tropical load line zone and destined for a port in summer load line zone. The entry point of summer load line zone is 10 days sailing and ship's fuel consumption per day is 40 tons. So from load port to the entry of summer load line, fuel consumption would be 400 T. Calculate the fresh water in the same way. After 10 days of sailing will you have more, less or same amount of fresh water? Let us say your fresh water generator produces 15 T of fresh water per day and average consumption of fresh water is 10T. So in 10 days, you will have 50 T of more fresh water. So you can afford to load 350 T of more cargo above the summer load line. This 350 T will be consumed during 10 days of sailing and you will be at summer load line after 10 days of sailing. Now how to plan to load this excess 350 T of cargo.  Let us say summer deadweight is 80000 T. Can you load 80350 T and comply with the load line zones??  The answer is No. Because the compliance is not based on the deadweight but on the freeboard (& hence the drafts) at the midship. Here is how chief officer needs to plan this. Plan for the point when the ship will enter the summer load line. Enter all the consumable you will have at this point. Which will be 350 T of less fuel from the date of loading and 50 T of more fresh water. Enter these values in the loadicator. Each vessel experience different amount of SAG when fully loaded. This is by the experience of the ship's crew. Usually, a Suez max size vessel will have around 10 cm of SAG. Allow this sag while looking at the loadicator drafts at midship. Once you have the loadicator condition for the point of entry of summer load line, enter all the present values of fuel oil and fresh water etc. This will be the condition that you have to load at the load port. When going from the summer load line zone to tropical load line zone, there is nothing extra you have to do. Because you are already in summer load line and you can only load up to summer load line. 

A: Samuel Plimsol is the person who has a great contribution to the maritime industry. Long back the ships used to sail fully loaded and with hardly any freeboard. These ships were also known as Coffin ships. Coffin ships because these ships were over-insured and it was more beneficial for the owner if the ship sinks. He would load the ship with hardly any freeboard and these ship would obviously sink in usual bad weather.Samuel Plimsol worked really hard to pass a bill in the British parliament for minimum freeboard to maintain for the ships. The words "plimsoll marks" were derived from his name.The point is that it is so important to have a minimum freeboard for any ship. Loadline convention gave a way to calculate the minimum freeboard for a ship and plimsol marks are marked on the sides of a ship as per the loadline convention.But why do we have the deck line ? What is its significance ?When we say "freeboard", from what point we need to measure the freeboard ? Can we say we should measure the freeboard from the top most point of the side plating ? If it was so, I as the owner can increase the fish plate height and will be able to load more cargo. Does increasing the height of the fish plate make the ship more seaworthy ? Absolutely not.So here the Deck line comes into picture.The deck line is a horizontal line marked amidships on each side of the ship. Its upper edge shall normally pass through the point where the continuation outwards of the upper surface of the freeboard deck intersects the outer surface of the shell plating. In Simple words, Deck line is line from where freeboard is measure and is drawn at a point on midship where deck plate meets the side shell plate. The deck line is fixed and marked when the vessel is built in the yard. It is not changed during the life of the ship. The deck line marking is 300 mm long and 25 mm in width.Why Do loadline changes on ships ?There can be many reasons why loadlines are changed on ships with dual loadlines. Let us discuss two of these reasons.1. To avoid some of the requirementsImagine there is an Oil / chemical tanker of 22000 T deadweight. This ship has been carrying chemical for whole of its life. The vessel do not have inert gas system as chemical tankers are not required to have one (though this requirement has recently changed). Now suddenly the ship has to load oil cargo. As per SOLAS oil tankers of more than 20000 deadweight need to have inert gas fitted.The easiest solution for the ship owner is to increase the freeboard and reduce the deadweight of the ship to 19999. Now the ship will not need to have inert gas system on board and ship can load the oil cargo.As class issues the load line certificate to the ship, to change the loadlines, ship owner need to make a request to the class to attend the vessel for change of loadline.   2. To enter a port with deadweight restrictionsMany ports of the world has limitation on the size of the ship they can berth. If a ship does not fit in that range, ship owner can reduce the deadweight of the ship by changing the loadlines. This way ship would be fit to enter and berth in that port as now the official deadweight of the ship would have changed. 

A: Convention A convention is formal agreement between states and is usually an instrument negotiated under an international organisation. For example, shipping has many conventions that were negotiated under International Maritime organisation (IMO). Some of these are International convention on safety of life at sea (SOLAS) International convention for prevention of pollution at sea (MARPOL) International convention on Load Lines International convention on Tonnage measurement of ships International convention on the control of harmful anti fouling system on ships Protocol A protocol is one of the ways in which a convention can be modified. A protocol is used for the modification of an IMO convention when  There is a significant change to the original convention When a new chapter is added to the original convention. For example when Annex VI was added to the MARPOL When a change is applicable to the all the chapters When IMO feels, the change need to be brought by the protocol The amendments by protocols are not binding on all the states that have ratified the original convention. The amendments by the protocols are only binding to the states that ratify the new protocol. For example IMO introduced "harmonised system for ship certification". But this change required change in the protocol of the SOLAS 74. So IMO had to bring these changes by a new protocol to the SOLAS called 1988 protocol to the SOLAS. Now all the states that had ratified the SOLAS 74 will not become party to this new protocol. So they may or may not choose to be part of this protocol. 

A: ECDIS has made it much easier for the navigator to safely navigate the ships. But that is only true if the ECDIS is used in a correct way and if it is used to its potential. ECDIS can surely help in collision avoidance and it must be used for collision avoidance but not as a stand-alone equipment. ECDIS complements other equipments on the bridge during collision avoidance. But if it is used without looking at the radars and visual look out, it will lead to dangerous consequences. The positive thing about using ECDIS during collision avoidance is that if we have to take avoiding action, we would know at all the times where the sea room is. This, of course, is applicable if we have entered the correct safety setting in the ECDIS.   It also gives the instant positions of the targets on the chart. This helps the navigators to have a proactive approach. For example, If the target is proceeding in the TSS we can easily take into consideration the possible future movements of the target as per the general traffic flow of the TSS. But the negative thing about using ECDIS as collision avoidance is that the target positions may not be correct in the ECDIS as it displays the target from the AIS which may not be giving correct positions of the targets. While identifying the targets by comparing the visual bearings of the target with the ECDIS can also lead to confusions in the case of multiple targets at close proximity. As the AIS positions of the targets may be offset by few cables or miles, the visual bearing may not match with the accurate targets.   Also not all the targets will be plotted on the ECDIS. For example, fishing boats that do not have AIS will not be plotted on the ECDIS. Or if the target has its AIS switched off or AIS is not working, this can lead to confusions. So when a target is identified, we may use ECDIS for deciding an action or for deciding if there is sufficient sea room available for the intended action but we must identify the targets by other reliable means like radar and visual look out. Image Source  

A: An alternative is provided for each equipment on board.  If Emergency fire pump is damaged or not working, one of the fire and GS pump can be given emergency power supply and it will act as an emergency pump. In case emergency generator is not working, we still have three generators (AE). If one lifeboat has some issues, we still have another lifeboat and/or Liferafts on board. But who decides if these alternative arrangements are enough for the vessel to be called a "seaworthy ship"? The answer is Flag state of the ship. If any of the safety equipment is not working, the ship manager needs to notify the flag state and classification society of the vessel. Classification society will advise the alternate arrangements. Once these alternative arrangements are in place, flag state may issue a dispensation for certain period. Once this dispensation is received, the ship can sail to the high seas. Even with this dispensation, ship manager and master must ensure that this fact is made known to the ship's charterers and any other party affected by the ship operation. I will share similar situation on one of the ships I was sailing as Master. Main engine governor developed an issue and the main engine could only be maneuvered from the emergency station in the engine room. The vessel was arriving a US port and we informed the class, Flag, and USCG for this defect. USCG. USCG allowed the ship to berth with one extra escort tug. Class surveyor boarded the vessel and issued a Condition of class and allowed the ship to sail to next port as the spares and technician were available and arranged for that. The vessel was carrying the oil major cargo and we informed the oil major too. Even though flag, class, and USCG allowed the ship to sail, oil major insisted that ship cannot even move to the anchorage area and must not leave the berth without rectifying the issue. There was some delay but the technician and the spares were brought to this port next day and vessel only moved after rectifying the issue. So it is not only the Flag and the class of the ship but also the charterers that we must inform about this significant defect.  In the case of an issue with any safety equipment, Machinery or bridge equipment, the ship must not sail without a flag dispensation on board.

A: The most effective and economic way of monitoring benzene during bunkering is by the use of Drager pump and Drager tubes. GASTEC is another maker of these kind of equipments. In these equipments, we have a pump and we have tubes for detecting a particular kind of gas (for example Benzene in this case). We need to break the end of the tube and inside the tube into the hand pump in the advised direction.We then need to pump the equipment to draw the air to pass through the tube. If the air has the gas we are trying to measure, it will change the color of the reagent inside the tube. We can measure the concentration on the markings of the tube.We need to understand that if the measured concentration is zero (that is no change in color), we can use the same tube multiple times. So if there is no benzene present in the air, we can use the same tube for the entire bunkering operation.However once the tube is broken, it has some validity which we need to check on the instruction paper of the tubes.

A: There are multiple questions in this one question. So let us first understand the key concepts.Dew point and Relative humidityThe air has a weight. This weight also contains some amount of moisture. So say 100 gms of air may contain 1 gram of moisture (water).Similar to a piece of cotton that has a limit to hold water, air too has a limit. This limit changes with the change in temperature.Dew PointDew point tells us the how much water the air actually has. Lower the dew point lesser is the water content in the air. The instrument that measures the dew point is called Hygrometer. On board ship the type of hygrometer used is the wet & dry bulb type. It measures the wet bulb temperature and dry bulb temperature. Dew point of the air is obtained by comparing the two temperatures on a dew point table.Relative HumidityRelative humidity tells us how much percentage of water the air has compared to how much it can hold at this temperature. So if we say 100% relative humidity, it means that the air has maximum amount of moisture that it can hold at this temperature. That is the air is saturated.For the steel cargo, our concern is the formation of sweat as steel can get stains because of that.So when can there be sweat in the cargo hold ?Answer is when dew point of the air inside the hold is higher than the outside temperature.In this case the formation of sweat can be avoided in two waysRemoving the moist air inside the hold and replacing it with dryer outside air by ventilation. Using dehumidifier inside the holdWith both ways the idea is to keep the dew point inside the hold equal to or lesser than the outside temperature.When relative humidity inside the hold is 100%, this means that the air is saturated and holds the maximum water content it can at this temperature.We need to either ventilate this moist saturated air with ventilation or use the dehumidifier inside the hold.

A: Shipper is simply a person (or company) who contracts with the carrier for carrying the goods from one place to the other. So in your case, if your company has (or will) contract with the carrier (Ship or aircraft) for carrying these goods from China to India, then you will be the shipper for this consignment and your company's details will be in the bill of lading as the shipper.Consignee is the person (or company) for whom the goods are meant to be. In your case as the goods are meant to be for your customer in India, they will be the consignee in the bill of Lading.This article could be of some more help on this topic. "Shipper, Consignee and Notify party explained" Regarding custom clearance, I do not see any problem in this provided the rules are followed. 

A: Different flags have different procedures for change of load lines. Some require the presence of a class surveyor, while some do not require this. For example Hong Kong flag do not require the presence of a class surveyor for change of loadlines. Singapore flag require presence of class surveyor for change of loadline. But Irrespective of if the presence of class surveyor is required or not, there are few things that are common in change of load lines on vessels with dual load lines. The Old load lines marks on the midship need to painted.The new load line marks need to be painted.All the certificates with old load lines need to be replaced with the certificates with new load lines. Apart from new load line certificates, sometimes we also need to change the IOPP certificate which is based upon the different deadweight of the ship.All the certificates with old load line will need to be sealed in a envelop and kept under master's safe. If flag requires presence of class surveyor, this envelop is sealed by the attending class surveyor.A log entry is made in the Official log book and deck log book regarding change of load lines.The new load line certificate is displayed in the accommodation and old one is removed.Avoid these 6 mistakes during change of load lines.

A: Let us say we are on a ship on a true course of 045 Degrees. We see an approaching target. Now we take its true and relative bearings. The true bearing is 090 Degrees and relative bearing is 045 Degrees.After sometime we again take the true as well as relative bearings. This time again the true and relative bearings are same. That is, true bearing is 090 Degrees and relative bearing is 045 Degrees.Now we conclude that there is risk of collision and we need to take action. We decide to alter our course to starboard and make it 090 Degrees. For some reasons the other ship altered her course to port. What will be the bearings now ?The true bearing will still be 090 Degree and will imply that there is a risk of collision. But what about relative bearing ? The relative bearing now will be 000 Degrees. As the relative bearing has changed, it may imply that risk of collision does not exist now.If we rely upon relative bearing, we will not know that risk of collision still exist until we take another bearing after few minutes to realise that though relative bearing had changed earlier but now the relative bearing is not changing again.So what I want to say is that in case both the ships keep on changing their course, their relative bearing will change even when the risk of collision still exists.For this reason, as per rule 7 of the COLREGS, the risk of collision shall be deemed to exist when the compass bearing (true bearing) of the approaching vessel does not appreciably change.

A: This is very unusual situation. Why would a shipper accept a Claused bill of lading at the load port if he did not agree with it ? Normally if the shipper has objection to the claused bill of lading, he will clear the matter with the ship owners at the load port itself.The most importantduty of the master with respect to BOL is to reflect the accurate condition of the cargo in the bill of lading. When this involves clausing the bill of lading, master must ensure that all the parties involved are notified of this.If the shipper has accepted the bill of lading, he has lost the right to question the claused bill of lading at the discharge port.Let us assume that shipper somehow did not object to the claused bill of lading at the load port. And now at the discharge port he or the receiver is refusing to take delivery of the cargo.As a master of the ship, the first duty is to tender Notice of Readiness. It is also advisable to re-tender the Notice of readiness every day till the time matter is not solved. All these notice of readiness tendered each day need to be "without prejudice to the previous notice of readiness". It is important to have these wordings on the subsequent NORs sent each day.What does this mean ? This means that all the notices sent each day does not mean that the previous notices are not valid.Apart from this, Master must issued a letter of protest for these delays to the receivers.Needless to say that owners need to be informed who will take up this matter with the shipper and receivers.Any point that I am missing ?

A: ISM code deals with safety and pollution prevention. Everything in ISM code is about ship safety and preventing pollution into sea. Master's overriding authority too is on issues concenring Ship's safety and pollution prevention. When we use the word Over-ride, it automatically involves two situations or decisons which are contradictory to each other. For example, if Master feels he should take some decison for the safety of the ship but there is nobody who is stopping him to take this decison, it cannot be said that he has used his overriding authority. If Master is doing everything as per his duties defined in the SMS, he is not overriding anything. He is just doing his duties. Let us say, Master arrives at a port and decides that he need to anchor for complying with crew rest hours. Is he over-riding anything ? Has he used his over-riding authority ? No, he hasn't. SMS manual would say that it is Master's duty to ensure that crew of the ship are well rested. Now let us see some examples of Master's over-riding authority. Let is say the charterers of the ship advise Master to take a shorter route that is expected to have very heavy weather. Master is not comfortable with that route and wants to take longer but safer route. Charterers and ship owner are trying to force their decision on master. Master can advise them that he is using his Over-riding authority. Another example would be where master is asked to berth the vessel with very less under keep clearance. Even if company has evaluated the situation and granted permission to berth with lesser UKC than minimum required by the company, master can use his over-riding authority to not berth the vessel.   

A: Testing requirements of the approved loadicator includes testing on board by the ship staff and testing by the classification society of the ship. Testing by ship staff Each ship is given the test conditions by the class before approving the loadicator. At least every 3 months, ship staff need to compare the actual values from the loadicator with the approved test conditions. The exact procedure to do so is Chief officer need to choose a test condition He need to enter all the weights in the loadicator. These weights need to be entered manually. He cannot choose a pre-saved condition from the loadicator. He need to check all the resultant values (like GM, VCG, LCG, SF, BM) from the loadicator and compare it with approved test condition. Both need to match. If it does, the test has passed. Testing by Classification society Each year, during annual survey classification society will do the same procedure and take the print out of the test conditions witness. Class will sign and stamp the test conditions print out. These need to be kept on board for showing to the third party inspectors. read further about this by reading these two blog Compliance with loadicator testing and records 5 Loadicator tricks that can ease your life during cargo operation

A: Testing requirements of the approved loadicator includes testing on board by the ship staff and testing by the classification society of the ship. Testing by ship staff Each ship is given the test conditions by the class before approving the loadicator. At least every 3 months, ship staff need to compare the actual values from the loadicator with the approved test conditions. The exact procedure to do so is Chief officer need to choose a test condition He need to enter all the weights in the loadicator. These weights need to be entered manually. He cannot choose a pre-saved condition from the loadicator. He need to check all the resultant values (like GM, VCG, LCG, SF, BM) from the loadicator and compare it with approved test condition. Both need to match. If it does, the test has passed. Testing by Classification society Each year, during annual survey classification society will do the same procedure and take the print out of the test conditions witness. Class will sign and stamp the test conditions print out. These need to be kept on board for showing to the third party inspectors. read further about this by reading these two blog Compliance with loadicator testing and records 5 Loadicator tricks that can ease your life during cargo operation

A: Foam is made up of three things Foam concentrate Water Air Foam concentrate is also defined by proprtioning ratio the foam is required to be used. So when we have 6% Foam concentrate, it is most effective when 6 parts of foam concentrate is mixed with 94 parts of water to form foam solution. Expansion ratio of the foam is the ratio in which foam is generated from the foam solution. So if the expansion ratio of the foam is 1:10, this means that 1 m3 of foam solution can form 10 m3 of fire fighting foam. Out of these 10 m3 foam, 1 m3 is foam solution and rest 9m3 is air. Low expansion foams have the expansion ratio of less than 1:20 High expansion foams have the expansion rario of more than 1:200 Now which foam will be heavier ? Foam generated from high expansion foam concentrate or low expansion ? You got it right !! Fire fighting foam generated from low expansion foam concentrate will be heavier as it has less air compared to high expansion foam. Now if we use high expansion foam (Lighter) on open deck areas, the foam blanket will break very easily with the wind. So the high expansion foams will be ineffective for deck fires. For this reason, for deck fires, it is low expansion foam that is used for fire fighting.

A: There are few arrival requirements for Operator such as applying for and getting approval of VGP, COFR etc. These requirements are not only for Houston but all US ports. For Masters arrival formalities include sending the timely ENOA/D and reporting of ballast water exchange. If you have followed all the arrival formalities, the departure formalities are not much of hustle at Houston or any other US ports. Master need to send the Departure ENOA if Houston is the last US port of the ship. For unberthing from Houston port, there is a minimum tugs requirement which is calculated based upon Ship's engine size and size of the bow thruster if Fitted. So if bow thruster is not working, master need to inform the port through agent about it.  I am not aware of any other special requirement for port of Houston.

A: Load line certificate certifies that vessel complies with the loadline convention. Loadline convention basically limits the ships on the minimum freeboard it needs to maintain. The minimum freeboard required by the loadline convention is calculated by taking into account many factors including reserve buoyancy of the ship. Loadline convention applies to ships of more than 24 meters in length. Not all ships of more than 24 meters in length need to comply with loadline convention. There are some exemptions to it whuch are detailed in article 6 of the loadline convention. Article 6 - Exemptions (1). Ships when engaged on international voyages between the near neighbouring ports of two or more States may be exempted by the Administration from the provisions of the present Convention, so long as they shall remain engaged on such voyages, if the Governments of the States in which such ports are situated shall be satisfied that the sheltered nature or conditions of such voyages between such ports make it unreasonable or impracticable to apply the provisions of the present Convention to ships engaged on such voyages. (2). The Administration may exempt any ship which embodies features of a novel kind from any of the provisions of this Convention the application of which might seriously impede research into the development of such features and their incorporation in ships engaged on international voyages. Any such ship shall, however, comply with safety requirements, which, in the opinion of that Administration, are adequate for the service for which it is intended and are such as to ensure the overall safety of the ship and which are acceptable to the Governments of the States to be visited by the ship. (3). The Administration which allows any exemption under paragraphs (1) and (2) of this Article shall communicate to the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization (hereinafter called the Organization) particulars of the same and reasons therefore which the Organization shall circulate to the Contracting Governments for their information. (4). A ship which is not normally engaged on international voyages but which, in exceptional circumstances, is required to undertake a single international voyage may be exempted by the Administration from any of the requirements of the present Convention, provided that it complies with safety requirements which, in the opinion of that Administration, are adequate for the voyage which is to be undertaken by the ship.  When exemptions to any ships is allowed as per article 6 of the loadline convention, The vessel is provided with a "Loadline Exemption Certificate". Bottom point is that all ships of over 24 meter in length to which loadline convention applies need to either have a Loadline certificate or Loadline exemption certificate

A: Your question is confusing and not complete. Does it mean Setting up the radar for the first time or setting up the radar generally after switching on ? You can read this blog on Radar. Hope this can be of some help and has the answer you are looking for. Marine radar: How best to set up to have it plot perfect targets on screen Leave a comment for any futher question on this.

A: Before proceeding to apply for GMDSS endorsement, check that your CDC details are correct and are available in the CDC checker. Make sure you have scan copies of following available with you. Recent Passport size photograph scanned as jpg file in size 35mm x 35mm Scan of your Signature Scan copy of Sea time letter from you company in pdf format. If you have more than one sea time letters, make sure to scan these as one PDF file. Scan copy of your GOC booklet (all pages) alongwith latest renewal page. All these pages need to be in one pdf file Self attested scan copy of medical fitness certificate from DG approved doctor. It is recommended that the medical is valid for next 6 months. If there are multiple pages, scan as one pdf file. Self attested scan copy of CDC alongwith pages of relevent sea time enteries. Make sure to scan all the pages as one pdf file. Include only relevent sea time entry pages. Scan copy of your old GMDSS endorsement   Once you have all of these available, login to your DG shipping profile. Once logged in click on "COC, DC endorsements, GMDSS operator" link Click on the "Application for GMDSS operator". It will take you to filling the data for online application starting from "personal details". Fill all the data.  It has fields "Place of Examination" and "Date of examination". If you do not remember the date of examination just fill approx date which will be around( but before) the date of issue of your GMDSS booklet. Click Continue and it will take you to "Address" tab. Fill the address correctly, it is more important if you choose to select delivery by post as GMDSS endorsement will be delivered on this address. Click Continue and it will take you to Sea time tab. Fill your Sea time for the ships mentioned in the sea time letter from your company. Click Continue and it will show you the "Fees" for renewal. Click Continue and it will show you the documents to attach. Tick the "I agree" on the declaration section and then click on "Generate Apllication No.". It will show you the screen with message that "your data has been successfully submitted". If you are ready to pay the fees now, you can click on "Pay now" under Payment status. If not, you can pay from different section as per below. Now you need to upload your documents and pay fees (if not paid as per above). For this, click on "Home" on the upper right corner, or you can relogin to DG shipping profile. Click on "COC, DC endorsements, GMDSS operator" link and then click on "Pay CoC & CoP Fees, Upload Documents and view Status". You can pay the fee from this section too by clicking on "pay now". Before you start downloading the documents, you need scan copy of the application you just submitted online. For that click on "View" under "View submitted data"  Save this PDF file, and either put your signature digitally or take the print out of the application and sign on the last page and then scan all the pages. If you are signing digitally, it is OK if the date is left blank on the last page. Either way have all the pages of this application as one pdf file. After you have all the documents scanned, click on the "upload documents" under the same screen and upload all the documents. You have now successfully applied for the GMDSS endorsement.  If you have choosen to deliver it by Post, you will get it in around 7 working days from the time it is approved.

A: SOLAS chapter II, regulation 3-1 requires that ship need to be constructed and maintained as per the requirements of a classification society. This means that during construction of a ship, classification society makes sure that the Design of the ship is as per the rules of the classification society Ship is constructed as per the design Ship's machinery (Mechanical as well as electrical) is as per the rules of the classification society After successful verification of these elements a "Certificate of class" is issued to the ship. "Certificate of class" only deals with ship structure and machinery of the ship.   Now during its life, a ship may have issues with ship's hull and/or machinery. For example A ship has collided with other ship which has resulted in a dent or hole on ship's side. To repair this ship need to sail for few days to arrive at nearest/economical dry dock. A ship has had allision with a jetty while berthing resulting in a dent or hole on ship's side. To repair this ship need to sail for few days to arrive at nearest/economical dry dock. A Ship engine Governor is not working and spares has a lead time and will only be available in around one month time  There are many more such examples and situations. In such cases, clearly ship is not complying with the rules of the classification society. But if the classification society revokes the "Certificate of class", the ship would not be able to sail.  So instead, a class surveyor attends the ship and suggests and/or verifies the temporary arrangements. After the said temporaray arrangements are in place, he will allow the ship to sail for one voyage or for some time period.  Class does so by issuing a "Condition of class", Which means that to be able to retain the class, the said defect need to be renewed before the specified period. This way the "certificate of class" remains valid but with a condition. When the defect is rectified, class surveyor will attend the vessel and verify that. After successful verification, he will delete the condition of class. In case of repair of structural damage, such as to hull, class may require a class surveyor to monitor the repair. In any case, if the condition of class is not removed before the said period, the certificate of class will become invalid and the ship will considered to be unseaworthy.

A: UKC manager provides 30 days trial period, which can be downloaded by clicking the below link. UKC manager 30 days trial download This is also the demo version of the UKC manager. To get the activation key, we can contact the UKC manager by going to their contact page UKC manager contact us But if you are looking for freely available UKC manager activation key, I do not think it is available anywhere. But still you can get in touch with the UKC manager.

A: I had written a detailed post on squat effect on ships. You can read that by clicking below link. 5 Questions that can help in understanding Squat effect on ships In short, squat effect is the decrease in under keel clearance of the ship because of a ship moving in shallow water. When a ship moves in shallow water, there is a low pressure created under the ship because of Bernoulli's theorem. There are 3 main factors that affects Squat Speed of the ship Block coefficient Blockage factor of canal Squat must be taken into consideration when calculating the under keel clearance of the vessel.

A: We first need to understand why we need to write the draft of the vessel in the bridge card and Pilot card. Or simply why we need to know the ship's draft at all. We need to know the draft for two main reasons We need to be sure that ship is not overloaded at any time We need to be sure what is the under keel clearnce of the ship at all stages of a voyage. There are three ways we generally read the vessel's drafts Visually From loadicator From draft Gauge (if fitted) No one can question that draft that is read visually will be most accurate one. Loadicator and draft gauge has its limitations and the drafts read from these can only be used for reference. The loadicator can show inaccurate drafts because  The constants weights and location entered in the loadicator may not be accurate The fuel, lube oil, water, sludge and other consumable entered in the loadicator may not be accurate The water density entered may not be accurate  The accuracy of loadicator depends upon the accuracy of inputs we have given it. Similarly, draft gauge has its own limitations. The accuracy of the draft gauges depends  upon the factors like  Control air pressure in the prescribed limits Draft Gauge pipes not blocked or not leaking proper calibration For these reasons, drafts from loadicator and draft gauges are used for reference and planning. But where it requires us to know the accurate draft of the ship, we must read the drafts visually.

A: Rule 7 mentions that for assessing if there is risk of collision or not, compass bearing of the other vessel should be taken. If the compass bearing does not appreciably change, there is a risk of collision.  It does not mention true compass bearing or relative compass bearing. Actually in most of the cases it does not really matter if we take true of relative compass bearing of the approaching vessel. There is rare possibilities where even when relative bearing of the approaching vessel changes but the still the risk of collision would exist. Read about this sitaution by clicking here. And when we have to take true bearing of the approaching vessel, we can get it straight away from the gyro repeater or from radar.  

A: Mariana trench is the known deepest part of the sea. It reaches the maximum depth of 10971 meters at a point called Challenger deep. It is located in the western pacific ocean. It is believed that only 5% of the ocean bottom is discovered and 95% of the ocean bottom is still not touched. So in this case the deepest part of the ocean could be more than the Mariana trench. But for now, Mariana trench remains the deepest part of the sea known. If you wish to have a sense of how deep this point is, see below image (Source of image).  

A: Let us first understand what are statutory certificates and what are mandatory certificates. Statutory certificates are required by law. When we say LAW, SOLAS or MARPOL is not a law. It becomes law when SOLAS, MAPROL or any other convention is incorporated in the local laws of a country. For example, SOLAS and MARPOL have become law in India because these IMO conventions are incorporated in the the Indian merchant shipping act which was passed by the indian constitution. Mandatory certificates may not be required by law of the flag of the ship but are required for trade of the vessel. For example, it is not statutory for singapore flag vessel to have COFR but it is mandatory for trade in US waters. Now lets come to certificate of class. As per SOLAS Ch II, ships must be constructed either as per the standards of a classification society or as per the applicable national standards of the flag state equal to the standards of the classification societies. I am not aware of any flag state that has their own standards of construction of ships. Flag states require the ships to be designed, constructed and maintained as per the standards of classification societies. This makes the "Certificate of class" a statutory certificate.

A: I have written couple of blog posts on checks and testing of Lifeboats. Please check this out. Are You Doing All These Checks on Your Davit Type Lifeboats ? Free Fall Lifeboats: what maintenance is required (and how to do it) ? These may answer your question. If there is anything more you may require, let me know in the comments to this answer or to any of these blog post.

A: Check out this blog post on Scopic Clause and salvage convention.  Simplifying SCOPIC clause and salvage convention If this doesn't help your query about SCOPIC, let me know.

A: Well as the name suggests,  Draft survey hydrometer is used to know the density of the sea water that will be used during draft survey for calculating the weight of cargo loaded. And Loadline hydrometer is used to know the density of sea water that will be used for calculating the compliance with the loadline convention. But isn't the density of water same ? So if these two hydrometers are supposed to give different densities for the same water, is one of these incorrect ? Absolutely not !!! Draft survey measures the actual density of the water. Whereas Loadline hydrometer measures the Apparent density (also called specific gravity) of the water. Let us see what is the difference !!! Specific gravity is the density in relation to something. When we measure the specific gravity of water, it is in relation to the fresh water at 15 C. So if specific gravity of sea water as measured with loadline hydrometer is 1.025, it means that the density of water in relation to the fresh water at 15 C is 1.025. Specific gravity is a ratio, a Number and does not have any unit. Now what is the actual density of water if the specific gravity is 1.025. The fresh water density at 15 C is 0.999 Kg/L in vacuum. So the actual density of water with specific gravity 1.025 will be  1.025 x 0.9991 = 1.024 Kg/L in vacuum The correction for converting this density from vaccum to the air is 0.0011. So actual density of sea water (with specific gravity of 1.025) in air will be 1.024-0.0011 = 1.023 Kg/L in air Now If we measure the density of the same sea water with draft survey hydrometer, it will give the reading of 1.023 Kg/L in air. When to use which Hydrometer ? If you want the dock water density to know how much you can submerge the load line and still comply with the load line convention, use loadline hydrometer. This will give you the specific gravity (apparent density) of the sea water.  But when calculating the weight of cargo loaded by draft survey, we want to know the actual sea water density (and not specific gravity). In this case we must use draft survey hydrometer. How to distinguish between Loadline and Draft survey hydrometer ? Both the hydrometers can be distinguished by the marking on the hydrometer. As loadline hydrometer measures specific gravity or Relative density, it will have the marking of notation RD or Sp. Gr. Draft survey hydrometers have the unit of the density and temperature marked on these. For example it may have the marking as Kg/L at 15 C. Ship staff must use the correct hydrometer for the intended use. If another hydrometer is used, proper corrections must be applied to it.

A: On Chemical tanker, cargo density limitation (Load density as we call it), is available in the "procedures and arrangement manual" (P&A manual) of the vessel. Apart from P&A manual and on other type of tankers, this information is also available in ship's trim and stability booklet. See below a screenshot of Trim & stability booklet of a product tanker.   Keep in mind that apart from load density, we need to check if there is any sloshing limitation. Sloshing limitation may sometimes be combined with load density restructions information but sometime you may find different section for each of these restrictions in the trim and stability booklet.  

A: There is an obvious danger of ship squat. The danger of grounding due to decrease in under keel clearance of the vessel. To fathom the danger that ship squat can pose to the vessel, one can go through the incident of sinking of RO-RO vessel "Herald of Free enterprize". Briefly the ship's  forward loading door was not closed before departure. As the vessel departed and increased speed, the forward freeboard reduced due to the ship squat. Soon water was rushing into the ship through the open door and soon after that ship capsized. 193 people died in this incident mainly because of Hyperthermia.  So in this case squat resulted in capesizing of the ship.  For more information on ship squat and what caused the ship squat, read this blog "5 Questions that can help in understanding of ship squat"  

A: Before 2006, the medicine carrying requirements was under ILO R105 : Ship's medicine chest recommendations. In 2006, the ILO MLC was adopted by a special ILO conference. The purpose was to consolidate all the ILO requirements related to seafarers as one document. MLC Section B, part 4.1.3 has the requirement for the flag states regarding the requirement of medicine chest on board.  The flags that have ratified the MLC convention must adopt to this requirement as per Maritime Labour convention (MLC). The flags that have not ratified the MLC convention will have their own rules under their merchant shipping act. These rules need to be in line with the requirement of MLC and the ships registered under its flag need to have statement of compliance stating that the ships are in compliance with the requirements of MLC. This statement of compliance is required if the ships of these flags are visiting countries that have ratified the MLC convention. 

A: A treaty is the agreement between two or more parties to solve an issue that affects the parties signing the treaty. A convention is the set of rules for the parties agreeing to the convention to solve an issue that affects larger part of the world. A treaty enters in force as soon as the parties involved in the treaty signs this agreement. Since a convention affect larger part of the world, it only comes in force when a minimum number of parties agree to the convention (in technical terms ratifies the convention). Most of the times a treaty is drafted and executed by the parties involved. A convention is drafted and executed by an international body such as "United nations", international maritime organisation or International labour organisation. For more details read this blog "Treaty and convention: how these two are different"

A: When lifting a heavt lift, Why does GM reduces ? GM reduces because of shift of center of gravity of the ship. In fact this is not only the case of lifting heavy lift alone. Center of gravity of the ship would change each time a weight is added (loaded) to the ship a weight is reduced (Discharged) from the ship A weight is shifted from the ship The shift of center of gravity is in the direction of weight added, removed or shifted. And the distnace the original center of gravity would move in that direction is calculated by formula GG1 =  w x d / W , Where w is the weight added, removed or shifted.  d is the distance between center of gravity of the weight and vessel W is the final weight (Displacement) of the ship Now when ship's crane lifts the heavy lift, the weight of the heavy lift is condered to be acting at the top most point of the boom, directly above the heavy lift. This reduces the GM of the vessel as center of gravity of the ship move upwards. If this caused the negative GM and to not to allow the GM to become negative, we need to increase the GM of the vessel before lifting of the heavy lift. This will be done by shifting the center of gravity downwards by placing heavy weights in lower part of the vessel (such as by ballasting the DB tanks). But if we cannot do that as the question asks. We are left with two options First is to use the shore crane for loading this heavy lift. Second is to use the ship's crane with as flat boom as possible. See the below picture to understand how the height of the boom can have the effect on shift of center of gravity (& hence GM ) of the vessel. The only limitation being that lifting a heavy weight with flat boom is not recommended as the SWL of the crane's component may reduce with flat boom. But if the SWL of the crane allows it, we can see if this can ensure the positive GM during the lift.

A: Speed over ground is the speed of the ship with respect to the ground or any other fixed object such as fixed buoy or island. Speed through water is the speed of the ship with respect to the water such as anything floating on water. A ship with her engine stopped in water with 2 knots currents will have zero speed through water but will have 2 knots speed over ground. Why ? You can read in detail on this blog post Speed over ground or Speed through water, Which one to use ? 

A: Marpol Annex 1, Regulation 30.4.2  requires every oil tanker delievered after 1 June 1982, required to be provided with segregated ballast tanks or fitted with a crude oil washing system, shall comply with the following requirements it shall be equipped with oil piping so designed and installed that oil retention in the lines is minimized; and means shall be provided to drain all the cargo pumps and all oil lines at the completion of cargo discharge, where necessary by connection to the stripping device. The line and pump draining shall be capable of being discharged both ashore and to a cargo tank or a slop tank. For discharge ashore, a special small diameter line shall be provided and shall be connected outboard of the ship's manifold valves The small diameter line mentioned here is also called Marpol Line. Marpol under unified interpretations (no 57) has mentioned the size of this small diamter line. As per the interpretation, For the purpose of application of regulation 30.4.2, the cross sectional area of the small diameter lineshould not exceed: 10% of that of a main cargo discharge line for oil tankers delievered after 1 June 1982; or 25% of that of a main cargo discharge line for oil tankers delivered on or before 1 June 1982 Considering there are hardly any oil tankers in operation that were delivered on or before 1 june 1982, we can consider the size of the marpol line not to exceed to 10% of the size of a main cargo discharge line. 

A: The limit of supplementary fund is too big. It is 700 Millions SDR.  If you think this would be lesser in USD, you would be wrong. 700 Millions SDR is equal to 952.51 US Dollars That is huge amount. There are many factors that indicates that this amount may not see its limit during one incident. Here is why Strict regulations for tankers Frequent inspections on tankers Lessers numbers of Ultra large tankers (ULCCs) built these days Along with these factors, the fact that this amount has never been used fully indicates that we may have enough money to cover the costs of one incident. However let's assume that there still was an incident where the whole of the amount was used and still there are claims pending. There are just 31 countries that have ratified supplementary protocol out of 114 countries that have ratified fund convention. So, Let me answer this question indirectly by asking another question. Who would pay if the pollution was in a country that is not the member of supplementary fund and pollution damage was above the fund convention limit ?  That country would only receive the compensation as per Fund convention and has to bear the losses above that. Same goes with the case for which pollution damage is above the supplementary fund.

A: First things first. We need to select only the largest scale charts for navigation. This is because of obvious reason that these charts are in more detail. But does that mean that we do not need the small scale charts ? Absolutely not !!! We still need small scale charts for passage planning. imagine we just have the large scale charts. It would be so difficult to draw and transfer courses on these charts. Instead what we do is, choose some of the small scale charts which cobvers our voyage and draw courses on these charts. Once we have laid the courses on these charts, we will then have the waypoints and these waypoints and courses can be laid on large scale charts. Now how do we select these small and large scale charts for our voyage ? There is an old way and a more modern way. Old way involves using the chart catalogue. With Chart catalogue you need to physically see the approximate planned route and then note down all the charts that the route of your voyage pass through. We can then check our inventory and select the one we do not have. Same need to be ordered before the voyage. The more modern and easier way is using Chartco, digitrace or any other similar softwares that company may have provided on board. I have written about process of selecting the charts on chartco on this blog. How to Install ENCs on Furuno ECDIS- Step by Step Guide Though this is for ENCs but the approach will be same.

A: If there aren't any limitations for loading, it does not really matter so much if the vessel will have Sag or Hog till the time stresses are below limits. Off course it is always better to have minimum stresses on ship. So keeping this in mind, we should spread the load so that we neither have Hog nor Sag. If vessel is fully loading upto the loadline marks, then it is preffered to have Hog as vessel will then have some draft in hand and less chances of overloading or exceeding the loadline marks

A: A chief mate is a senior officer and 2nd in command on the vessel. He must read all of the charter party agreement even if some parts are not related to the cargo operations. Specifically, about cargo operations, he should check and read about following  

A: Who own the sea ? Few decades back there was no answer to this question. But the ever developing shipping industry and increase in business through ships demanded an answer to this question. Fast forward today. UNCLOS is the answer to this question. UNCLOS stands for United Nations convention for the law of seas. In layman's language UNCLOS defines who owns what part of the sea. As per UNCLOS, the sea is divided into 4 parts Territorial waters Contiguous Zone Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) Continetal Shelf Territorial waters extends upto 12 Nautical miles from the base line. This part of the sea is owned by the country. They have all the rights in this area as they would on the land. Contiguous zone extends upto 12 Nautical miles from the Territorial waters (24 NM from the baseline). In the Contiguous zone, the countries rights are limited to Customs Taxation Immigration and Pollution This means that a country has the right in these areas to prevent activities related to these four matters. EEZ is extended upto 200 Nautical Miles from the baseline.  In the EEZ, the country has only one right. That is "Exploitation of Natural resources". Which means that even though the country do not own this part of the sea, each country owns the natural resources upto EEZ. The perfect example of this is Gulf of Mexico which lies in the EEZ zone of US. If you have been to this area, you would see lot of rigs extracting oil & other natural resources. Right of Innocent Passage  Another aspect of UNCLOS is "right of innocent passage". Part II, Section 3 of the UNCLOS is for rules (articles) on "right of innocent passage. As per Article 17 of UNCLOS, all ships have the right of innocent passage through the Territorial waters of a country. UNCLOS article 19 defines "innocent passage". If a ship during its transit through the territorial waters is engaged in any of the following activities, it will not be a "innocent passage".  any threat or use of force against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of the coastal State, or in any other manner in violation of the principles of international law embodied in the Charter of the United Nations; any exercise or practice with weapons of any kind; any act aimed at collecting information to the prejudice of the defence or security of the coastal State; any act of propaganda aimed at affecting the defence or security of the coastal State; the launching, landing or taking on board of any aircraft; the launching, landing or taking on board of any military device; the loading or unloading of any commodity, currency or person contrary to the customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws and regulations of the coastal State; any act of wilful and serious pollution contrary to this Convention; any fishing activities; the carrying out of research or survey activities; any act aimed at interfering with any systems of communication or any other facilities or installations of the coastal State; any other activity not having a direct bearing on passage.

A: A convention is an agreed set of rules related to a particular matter. For example  Safety of life at Sea convention (SOLAS) for safety related matters at sea. MARPOL for matters related to Marine pollution More often than not, the need of a convention is triggered by a major incident.  For example the need to have SOLAS convention was triggered after sinking of Titanic. Similarly the need to have MARPOL convention was triggered by number of pollution incidents. Sometimes the need of a new convention is also felt after a major research study. For example, research on ballast water found that ballast water is a reason of concern and requires attention to the way we manage ship's ballast. That led to the "Ballast water convention". For whatever reason, when a need for a new convention is felt, IMO after a long study and processes drafts the convention. This draft is discussed and adopted by the relevant committee of the IMO. The adopted convention is ratified once the pre set conditions (number of states and minimum tonnage) are met. Now let us come to the point. Where does code fit in all this ? To understand that, put yourself in the center stage. You have been given the work to draft a convention.  Let us say you have to draft SOLAS convention. And you are now drafting Chapter III of SOLAS convention, which is Life saving appliances and arrangement Let us say in this chapter you are drafting the requirements for Lifejackets. And you wrote this, Brilliant !!! But there is something missing. Which lifejacket are we talking about here ? Will the inflatable type life jacket do ? What do we mean by "Infant Lifejacket ? So many questions. And here are the answers to the specifications of the required life jacket. And the standards required for Lifejacket goes on for another 3 pages in the LSA code. And we are not talking about including only these 4 pages in SOLAS chapter III. This is only the description for Lifebuoy. We have many more life saving equipments and description of those will also be required. Not only that. We have a SOLAS chapter for fire fighting equipments also and the description of those would also be required. So if we do not put all these requirements of required standards into a different book called "Code", we will face two issues The size of the draft of convention would increase 10 fold, and The conventions will not be clear to the reader Imagine if we have all these codes (that are part of SOLAS) incorporated inside the SOLAS FSS Code LSA Code ISM Code ISPS Code Intact stability code It would be difficult. So instead what we can do is Provide all these informations as a "code" and wherever required, mention the code reference in the convention  This is exactly what IMO does with all its conventions. Want to see how the SOLAS requirement of Life Jacket is drafted ? Here it is So one line and a different book for standards called "Code" does the trick. So a Code to a convention is part of the convention. It provides the international standards required for the elements mentioned in that particular chapter of the convention. 

A: Ship need to be designed, built and maintained as per the standards and requirements of a classification society. But sometimes a ship may fall short of these standards. For example, let us say that a ship had a collision. The ship had a big hole on its hull, above the water line.  Can the ship sail ? Is the ship seaworthy ? Off course not. The ship need to be docked and the hull need repairing. But for the ship to arrive at the nearest dry dock requires sailing time of 2 days. What can be done in this case ?  Another example. Vessel had issue with the Governor of ship's engine. Because of this ship cannot be manoevered from the wheelhouse or from Engine control room. It can only be manoevered from the local station in the engine room. To get the required spares on board need time of around 15 days. Do the ship need to wait for those spares. What I am trying to say is that there may be situations that require a ship to sail for few days with a notable deficiency.  In this case, Classification society may recommend some temporary measures to the ship owners. After these measures are implemented, the class may allow the ship to sail for few days or to the next port.   Classification society in this case will issue a "condition of class" to the ship. This is not a nice thing to have. Even Oil majors do not accept a ship with 'condition of class". Now what is "class memorendum" ? Classification society's memoranda to the ship owners are the notes for them. These notes highlight something to the ship owner that is within the acceptable limits but may require their attention because it can go out of the limit in near future. Let us see few of the examples.  Let us say during annual class survey, the surveyor found an indentation on the ship's hull. This indentation is within the acceptable limits as per the rules of classification society. But they want to remind ship owners that though this is within acceptable limit, it is better to repair this at next available opportunity. This fact will be entered as a "memoranda for the ship owners".  Another common example. A memoranda may be issued for any new requirement that the vessel need to comply in near future. As I said, memorandum are the notes from the class for the ship owner. There is nothing to worry about these memorandum but any memorandum related to hull structure is taken seriously by the third parties. 

A: Ships need to built according to a set standards of design and construction. These standards are drafted by the "international association of classification societies (IACS).  Different classification societies can have their own rules over and above the rules set by IACS. Now before a ship is classed, classification society checks all the parameters related to construction and design. Some of these may be mandatory, other will not be.  Based upon the design and construction, class assigns "notations" for the ship. Notations are in form of symbols and letters. Each symbol and/or letter defines a particular aspect of the ship's design and construction.  The class notations are mentioned in the "Certificate of class". Below is the section of class certificate of a ship. Each of these letters, numbers and symbol has a meaning.  For example, "construction symbol" signifies if the ship was built under the guidance of class or not. Tanker for chemicals and oil: This means that the ship is designed to carry chemicals and oil. E0: This notation means that ship is designed for UMS operation. ESP: This means that ship is enrolled for "enhanced survey program". What is the significance of these notation to the seafarers ? Ship staff need to make sure that all the elements of class notations are properly maintained. For example if the ship is classed for UMS operation, ship must be operated in UMS mode. If the ship has class notation "ESP", master must ensure that ESP file is on board and maintained. 

A: The survey for all the statutory certificate is done together as per harmonised system of  ship surveys and certifications.  The survey that are done together as per HSSC are for following certificates International oil pollution prevention certificate International Air Pollution prevention certificate Cargo Ship ship safety equipment certificate Cargo ship Safety construction certificate Cargo ship Safety Radio certificate International Load Line certificate International certificate of Fitness for the carriage of dangerous chemicals in Bulk (For Chemical tankers only)  

A: There is no legal relationship between Master and Pilot other than that the pilot is engaged in an advisory capacity to provide guidance to the master regarding local conditions. The Master of the ship is expected to know everything related to the berthing a ship to a berth of a port. Legally the role of the pilot is to Provide local information to the master which may otherwise not be possible to include in the Sailing directions Provide local traffic information, and To have a better cooperation from the port facilities like the tug boats, Berth coordinator and the mooring party  However after having all these information, it is the master that is responsible for all the delays and damages weather to the ship or to the port facilities. Very few ports actually will hold the pilot legally responsible for the damages or an accident beacuse of pilot error. In fact most pilot contracts (Which the master acknowledges probably when he signs the pilot slips) clearly states that the pilot is not responsible for any damage.

A: Information Fusion center in South china sea and Mallacca strait serves similar purpose to what UKMTO serves in Gulf of Aden. The reporting to the IFC is voluntary. The reports are called VCR which is Voluntary Community Reporting. The Information Fusion center cover following area All the VCR reports need to be sent by email to information_fusion_centre@defence.gov.sg For Urgent matters IFC can also be contacted through the following means: Office: +65 6594 5728 (8.30am to 5pm) Hotline: +65 9626 8965 (For urgent matters after office hours). The report that need to be sent are  

A: I recently wrote a detailed post on "position fixing". This includes the position fixing on paper charts as well as plotting positions by various methods on ECDIS. You can read it by clicking below link. Position Fixing: The Most Important Element of Passage Planning Let me know if there is any other specific question on plotting positions on ECDIS.

A: All oils cause pollution to the sea and for this reason MARPOL does not distinguish between a good oil and bad oil. Annex I of the MARPOL applies to all type of oils. The concept of persistent and non persistent oils came into light during the cleaning efforts of major oil pollutions including that from Torrey Canyon. It was then noted that pollution of few oils does not require any special clean up operation as these oils will either dissipate rapidly through evaporation, or the sheen would die down in the sea waves   This was the time when the focus was put in dividing the oils in two categories. And these were Persistent oils and Non-persitent oils It is all in the names. Persistent oils are the one that persists and do not dissipate easily. As the money required for spill cleaning and containment of the persistant oils will be too large, the liability conventions like CLC convention, FUND convention applies to the persitant oils only. But persistent oils still needed a definition on the basis of which the oils can be categorised into persistant or non persistant. After much research and study, the IOPC fund adopted definition of non-persistent oils which is “non-persistent oil is oil which, at the time of shipment, consists of hydrocarbon fractions, at least 50% of which, by volume, distils at a temperature of 340°C (645°F) and at least 95% of which, by volume, distils at a temperature of 370°C (700°F); when tested by the ASTM Method D86/78 or any subsequent revision thereof”. 

A: ENCs need to be corrected to the latest notices. The easiest way of doing that is by just inserting the Base cells and update DVD.  But the issue with that is, these DVDs arrive months after its release. And for these months your ENCs will not be corrected to the latest "notices to mariners". Now is it absolutely necessary to correct the ENCs or paper chart every week ? When there were no chartco, Voyager or Digitrace, the notice to mariners used to arrive on board as hard copies. So we used to receive these notices to mariners for last 6 weeks together. And 2nd mate used to have a tough task to finish these as soon as possible. So do we mean that seafarers were sailing on uncorrected charts and in dangerous way at that time. The answer is NO. Let us say there was a new wreck discovered close to a port. This need to be communicated to the seafarers working on the ship. How does this information reach ships ? The first information of this wreck would arrive to the ships as EGC navigational warning through Sat-C or through Navtex warnings. (That makes the Navigational warnings more important than the permanent or T&P corrections). This nav warning will remain valid for at least 2 months and after that this information is passed as permament correction or T&P correction in the "Notice to mariners". So if your charts are not corrected for more than two months, you may miss that wreck as this will also not be there as a valid "Navigational warnings". During those days, even vetting instectors would check if the latest notice is more than two months old. If yes, it would be an observation. But that was long time back. Now navigation is taken even more seriously. And two months period is no more allowed. Charts need to be corrected every week and that is what is expected by all the third party inspectors and that is the way it should be. So answering your question directly, Yes.. we need to apply the corrections to ENCs every week. The DVD just acts as the back up and reset point.

A: Each classification society will issue only one "certificate of class" to a ship. Each ship can have more than one "Certificate of Class" Confused ? Don't worry !! I know the two statements looks contradicting to each other but these are not. Let me explain. Each ship need to be designed, built and maintained as per the rules of the classification society aprroved by the flag state of the ship.  When the ship complies with the rules of the classification society that the ship owner has choosen, the classification society will issue the "certificate of class" to the ship. So the classification society will issue only one "certificate of class" and there is no reason or need for a second "certificate of class" to be issued. But few ship have dual class. For example, all the ships of "The shipping corportation of India" used to have dual class. Out of two, one classfication society was "Indian Registrar of shipping". Indian ships were required to have IRS as its classification society but as IRS was then not a member of IACS, ships were forced to have a second classification society which was member of IACS. So in this case, these ships would have certificate of class from each classification society.  Off course, In 2010 when IRS became the member of IACS, Indian ships were no more required to have Dual class. But if a ship has only one classification society, it will have only one "certificate of Class". 

A: I would assume that you are talking about "certificate of competancy" and not the ship's certificates. if you are about to sail for a voyage that would last more than one day, the answer to your question would be "NO' If the voyage is only for one day, no doubt you can sail. There is this thing that says, if the certificates are expired during the voyage, the certificates can considered to be valid until the completion of voyage. But this is only for unavoidable circumstances. Circumstances like unplanned anchorages. But if you are sailing for a voyage with complete knowledge that your certificates would expire during the voyage, it would not be allowed unless a dispensation/extension is received from the issuing country.  After the extension is received, the company then also need to apply to the flag of the vessel for extension of flag dpcuments before you can sail for the voyage.  

A: As you would already know there is no range mentioned in the ROR for definition of "Restricted visbility". As per ROR The term ‘restricted visibility’ means any condition in which visibility is restricted by fog, mist, falling snow, heavy rain- storms, sandstorms or any other similar causes.  There are two questions   "Why IMO did not include the range for "Restricted visibility" ? What visibility range we should consider for it to be "Restricted visibility"? To understand this, can you think of a minimum range at which when you take action after detecting a target visually, the vessel will be safe ?  Let us say you thought of 3NM. For thinking of this range you might have taken into account the factors like normal ship's speed and traffic density etc. If the visibility is less than this range, for you this will be "restricted Visibility". But won't it be confusing when for other vessel may take the action as per rules "in sight of one another" and you take the actions as per "restricted visibility". No it won't be. Because the rules are drafted in such a way that these do not contradict each other. For example if there is a vessel on head on situation, the action as per "Head On" rule and as per "Restricted visibility" rule will be same. Same is the case with other rules like crossing situation.  So the IMO did not include the range for "restricted visibility" because same range cannot fit all the vessels. The range for which we can consider the visibility as restricted is the minimum range at which you can take effective avoiding action. You can read this blog for more clarification. 5 Confusing Terms of Ship Navigation and its Clarification

A: Even though Indian Government has okeyed ratification of Bunker convention last year India has not yet ratified the Bunker convention. But India has ratified the CLC 92 convention. Even though the original CLC 69 did not cover the pollution from the tanker in ballast and pollution from the bunker oil of the tanker. In the 1992 amendments to the CLC convention, few changes were brought including that CLC 92 covers pollution from the bunker oil also. Now there was a bunker pollution incident off Chennai following the collision of tankers "BW Maple" and "Dawn Kanchipuram".  So in this incident, the costs will be covered by insurance set up by the vessels in question under CLC convention 92.

A: Have a look at this resolution of Maritime safety committee of the IMO. This is the resolution number MSC.192 (79). The sequence number of the resolution is 192. The resolution was passed by the MSC (Maritime safety committee) of IMO. That is what MSC denotes in the resolution number. The number 79 in the brackets signifies that this resolution was adopted in 79th session of the maritime safety committee. I am sure that will make clear about other resolutions mentioned in the above picture. For example Resolution A.886(21) means that this resolution was passed by the Assembly in its 21st Session and the resolution number is 886. 

A: Absolutely. To understand this first we need to understand who is a shipper and who is a consignee. A shipper is a party who arrnages for the transportation or a carrier (for example a ship) to transport the goods. If seller of the goods arranges for the transport, seller becomes the shipper of the goods.  If the buyer of the goods arranges for the transport, buyer becomes the shipper of the good. Shipper then hires a ship (or other transport) and enters into a contract with the carrier. This contract is "Contract of carriage". Consignee is the party to whom the goods need to be delivered. For a carrier (or ship) it is important to know to whom the goods are to be delivered. In the cases where buyer of the good is the shipper, the buyer may want the goods to be delivered directly to them. In this case the shipper will also be the consignee.

A: Drager tubes do not need to be tested. It is the drager pump that need to be tested for "Leak Test". Now depending upon the model of drager pump, the leak test procedure could be different. Let us see how to do the Leak test with Drager Accuro pump which is most common Drager pump. To perform the "Leak test" on Drager Accuro pump, connect a unbroken Drager tube to the Drager pump. Squeeze the Drager pump completely and then release it. The bellow of the pump should remain in vacuum for 10-15 minutes. There is also a dot which when white indicates that the bellow is in Vacuum and when black it indicates that the bellow is not in Vacuum. Another Model of the Drager may have inbuilt leak test function. But if you are looking to test if the Drager tube would measure and give correct readings or not, I don't think there is any way to test that and we are not required to test that.

A: There is no standard checklist for knowing what all statutory certificates a vessel is required to possess. But each company usually develop this checklist and provide this to the vessel. This checklist could be in form of a PMS software that alert the ship and shore staff of the certificates / Surveys that are coming due in near future. Apart from that "class survey status" lists all the statutory certificates of the ship. Class status report also shows the validity of each certificate alongwith due date of the surveys related to each certificate.

A: The block coefficient of a ship is the ratio of the underwater volume of ship to the volume of a rectangular block having the same overall length, breadth and depth. Let us make this more clear. Let us say a vessel has a draft equal to 'd' meters. The ship's underwater volume will be as highlighted yellow in the below picture. Now let us say that the extreme dimensions of the ship's hull at this draft are 'L' and 'B'. In other words if we have a box of length 'L', Width 'B' and height 'd', the ship's underwater area at this draft would exactly fit this box. Now the ship's block coefficient at this draft (Cb) would be Cb = Displacement of the ship / L x B x d As all these factors would change with the change in draft, Cb would also change with change of ship's draft.

A: New Jason clause is included in the most of the bill of ladings. The purpose of this clause is to highlight the fact that no matter what, the general average would apply to the contract of carriage. As per Rule D of the "York Antwerp rules", irrespective of the party at fault that led to an incident, general average would apply. But local laws of some countries including US do not allow the general average in case of navigation fault of the ship's staff. Inclusion of "New Jason Clause" in the bill of lading protects the ship owners by having the general average in these cases too. The New Jason clause states that “In the event of accident, danger, damage or disaster before or after the commencement of the voyage resulting from any cause whatsoever, whether due to negligence or not, for which, or for the consequence of which, the carrier is not responsible by statute, contract or otherwise, the goods, shippers, consignees or owners of the goods shall contribute with the carrier in general average to the payment of any sacrifices, losses or expenses of a general average nature that may be made or incurred and shall pay salvage and special charges incurred in respect of the goods. If a salving ship is owned or operated by the carrier, salvage shall be paid for as fully as if the said salving ship or ships belonged to strangers. Such deposit as the carrier or his agents may deem sufficient to cover the estimated contribution of the goods and any salvage and special charges thereon shall, if required, be made by the goods, shippers, consignees or owners of the goods to the carrier before delivery.” 

A: As per ROR, The word ‘underway’ means that a vessel is not at anchor, or made fast to the shore, or aground.  The vessel is considered to be at anchor when the vessel's anchor is down and is holding. In any other use of the anchor, vessel is not considered to be at anchor. In all these cases vessel is considered to be Underway. If the vessel is dragging anchor or if we are using the anchors to turn the vessel, in these cases the vessel is considered to be underway and not at anchor.

A: Indeed a very good question.  To answer this, I would first highlight the fact that putting the rudder on midship when engine is running astern is a practice rather than a rule. There is no rule that we have to keep the rudder on midship when giving astern movement on the engine. But why this is considered to be a good practice ? There are few reasons. Let us discuss each one of these. 1. Propeller Cavitation The ship is designed for moving in forward direction. The shape and curvature of the bow is designed in such a way that it cuts through the water smoothly when moving in forward direction. The water resistance is kept to the minimum possible for the ship's motion in forward direction. But that is not the case with the stern of the ship. Stern of the ship is usually broad. This means that when the propeller is turning in opposite direction, the water flow gets resistance from the stern of the ship. Because of this, we experiance vibrations when the ship's engines are running in the astern direction. This is even more prominent during astern movement with ship still having headway forward. Now let us say that we keep the rudder to hard to starboard when the engines are running astern. In this case we are restricting the flow of the water to the propeller. This would create more vibrations and can also cause propeller cavitation.  Regular instances of propeller cavitation can cause some damage the propeller. While ship's hull and machinery is designed to withstand the usual vibrations but i It is the duty of the prudent navigator to keep these vibrations to the minimum. 2. Shift of Pivot point When the ship's engines are running astern, the pivot point of the ship moves to 1/4th of the ship's length from the stern of the vessel. The turning lever in this case is too small for the rudder to actually turn the vessel. This makes the rudder of the ship virtually ineffective when the engines are running astern. Even though small, there is still some turning lever when the ship's engines are running astern. But considering we are subjecting the ship to more vibrations and the possibility of propeller cavitation for generating a small amount of turning lever, it is prudent to keep the rudder at midship. 3. We need more astern power-quickly  Finally, why we are giving astern movement ? Most of the times it is because we either want to quickly stop the ship or quickly reduce the ship's speed. Quickly is the keyword in this. If we do not keep the rudder on midship, we are restricting the flow of water to the propeller. This reduces the stern thrust generated by the propeller and the reduction of the speed would comparetively be slow. Considering our main aim of giving the astern movement is to slow down or stop the ship quickly, we need to keep the rudder on midship.  Do you have any other reasoning for this ? If yes, Please share !!!

A: The short answer to this question is simple.  We do not have one port state MOU under IMO because it is tough to have such MOU. There are number of reasons why it would be tough. All the port states need to have IT infrastructure that can connect the data of all the port states. IMO has no control of development of IT infrastructure of any country All the port states need to ensure that this data is not misused in any way. It is difficult for IMO to ensure that for each country. IMO would need to set up a centralised server to have all the data connected. IMO would need to invest a lot of money and resources in doing that. Apart from that, the MOUs usually have similar expectations from the ships and its operations. For example Paris MOU will be concerned about ship's capability to use low sulpher fuel. But Indian Ocean MOU will not be concerned about that. In this case, with a common MOU under IMO, Paris MOU would want to inspect the ships calling their ports. Even if IMO like this idea of common MOU, it is never easy for them to implement this. This is because, for each new thing the IMO would want to implement, it need to convince all the flag states.  This is always a tough task unless something is absolutely necessary. More oftne than not this necessity is always initiated by a major accident or a major research work. In past, Few students of world maritime university have taken up this topic as their thesis project. But unless these thesis show some urgency in the need of a common MOU, this would not be a realty. Not in near future at least. Click here to Read one of thesis on this subject. It is interesting to read the view points of various MOUs on this subject in the thesis. 

A: I do not see a reason why a chief officer cannot become a safety superintendent. But what I like about this question is you being absolutely specific. You did not ask about if a chief officer can get a shore job in a shipping company. Instead you are being specific here about the possibility of a chef officer being a safety superintendent. If you (or person in picture here) have interest in a role as specific as safety superintendent, you have crossed the first hurdle which is setting a clear goal. The second hurdle in this is with the comparatively lesser experience that you may have for this role. But if your learning graph in last few years has been going up, I am sure you can convince anyone of your suitability for this role. All the best.

A: I wrote a post explaining Incoterms in detail. You can read this post by click on the below link. Incoterms: Guide of everything you want to know about If there is any other specific question on this topic, do not hesitate to ask.

A: Bill of lading is a document of title. This means that the person who has the bill of lading is the owner of the cargo. But the bill of lading can be transferred to another person. So if person A transfers the bill of lading to person B, person B becomes the owner of the cargo. Master of the ship issues these bill of ladings. When a cargo is loaded, the master is supposed to issue the bill of ladings to the shipper. The shipper would advise the Master how many copies of the original bill of lading they would need. Usually, three originals of the bill of lading are issued for the cargo loaded. Each of these three original would be marked as "First original", "Second original" and "Third original". All these three bills of lading would also be marked as "Negotiable". A negotiable bill of lading means that these bill of ladings can be negotiated and transferred to any other person who will become the owner of the cargo. Apart from the negotiable bill of lading, master also issues some copies of "non-negotiable" bill of ladings. As the name suggest, non-negotiable bill of lading cannot be negotiated and these are not the document of title. That means the holder of a non-negotiable bill of lading cannot be the owner of the cargo. The non-negotiable bills of lading are issued for documentation purposes such as for customs purpose. Before releasing the cargo at the discharge port, the master must check that original of the negotiable bill of lading is presented to him.

A: I totally understand the confusion here and trust me, you are not alone. Imagine a cadet being subjected to these tough sentences. I believe if the circumstances of the case admit, there should be a simpler version of the rules of the road. Ooops.. I used it too. But don't worry. I will simplify this. Let us see the rules where this phrase is used Now I am going to tell you to replace this phrase with two words. This will make it easier to understand these rules. These two words are "If possible". Read these rules again by replacing the text in red with the words "if possible". For example, now the text in rule 9 will become Any vessel shall, if possible, avoid anchoring in narrow channel. Now that we understand this phrase, it might give an impression to us that we can easily by-pass the rules. For example, it might look like, we can easily anchor in the narrow channel and say that it was not possible for us to avoid it. But the onus to prove that it was really not possible, will be on the vessel that anchored. By default, it will be considered that it was possible to avoid anchoring. 

A: Here is a blog that I wrote on "Speed over ground and speed through water". This might help. Speed Through water or speed over ground, Which one to use? If you any other specific question on this, do not hesitate to ask.

A: I wrote an article on "Fund Convention" earlier. Hope that can help in the understanding of Fund convention. 10 Things You Should Know About Fund Convention 92 If you any other specific question on fund convention, let me know.

A: As the name suggests, Panamax vessel is the largest size of the vessel that can transit the Panama Canal. The maximum size of the vessels allowed in Panama Canal is Overall Length:  950 ft (289.56 m) with few exceptions for container vessels and rigidly connected tug-barge combination Max Beam: 106 ft (32.31 m) Max Draft: 39.5 ft (12.04 m) in Tropical Fresh Water (TFW) Max Air Draft: 190 ft (57.91 m) measured from the waterline to the vessel's highest point A ship of these dimensions would typically have deadweight between 65000 to 80000 T.  Now with the expansion of the Panama Canal, there is new term for size of the ship, which is called "new Panamax".

A: I wrote a post on Hague-Visby rules sometime back. You can read it by clicking on the below link. A basic and simplified guide of Hague Visby rules for seafarers If you have any other specific question on Hague-Visby rules, don't hesitate to ask.

A: DPA is the link between the ship and the shore. DPA is legally bound to provide all the legitimate support to the ship. Let us see what ISM code says about the "Designated Person Ashore"... To ensure the safe operation of each ship and to provide a link between the Company and those on board, every Company, as appropriate, should designate a person or persons ashore having direct access to the highest level of management. The responsibility and authority of the designated person or persons should include monitoring the safety and pollution- prevention aspects of the operation of each ship and ensuring that adequate resources and shore-based support are applied, as required.  If you notice, responsibilities of DPA are related to the safety and pollution prevention. Master must contact DPA if he feels that he is not getting enough support from the shore staff for any safety and pollution prevention issues. I will list few of the situations where Master must contact DPA. Issues with any MARPOL or safety equipment and the superintendent is unable to provide shore servicing of the equipment. Master finds the ship to be unseaworthy Master feels the commercial pressure from shore staff, which in his understanding can lead to unsafe conditions. One real example I know is where a Master was being pushed by shore staff to berth the vessel with very less under keel clearance. Master felt this is unsafe and informed the DPA and used his authority to wait for 2 days for the suitable tide. All the cases where Master has to use his over-riding authority Master must not hesitate to call DPA whenever he feels he has an issue related to safety and pollution prevention. There is no big deal in calling DPA. And Masters must understand few things in relation to the DPA. 

A: Vetting inspections are not mandatory by statute or by law. But these inspections have become a necessity for operating a commercial ship. The cargo owners, terminals and all other parties commercially involved with the ships want to make sure that they have a seaworthy and a safe ship. Reviewing the findings of the port state inspections is one of the way the ship's condition can be judged. But scope of the port state inspections is limited and not detailed in most of the ports. Third party inspections like vetting inspections have become the most useful tool for the commercial parties to assess the condition of the ships. Vetting inspections results act as a tool for the potential charterers to compare between ships and choose the best one. 

A: IMDG Code specifies various conditions of the carriage of dangerous goods in packaged form. Shippers need to make sure that all these conditions are followed when shipping the dangerous goods. For example, the dangerous goods need to be segregated as per the IMDG code to avoid two incompatible goods to come in contact with each other. IMDG Code deals with DG in packaged form. It has all the information on how a dangerous good need to packed and how much quantity can be in a single packing. Let us say that for a packing group required for a DG, the maximum allowed quantity in one pack is 200KG. One shipper transports 200 KGs of this DG in one packing and other shipper makes 40 packages each of 5 Kgs. Which one will be safer? Off course, smaller the package safer it would be to transport. Limited quantity and excepted quantity specifies the size of the small packings. Limited quantity Limited quantity specifies the maximum quantity that can be in the inner packaging for transporting these DGs under limited quantity. In the IMDG Code, Look for the dangerous good that needs to be transported and under 7a, it will show the limited quantity for that DG. If the limited quantity is mentioned as 0, this means that this DG cannot be carried as "limited quantity". If the limited quantity is mention as 1 liter, this means that maximum quantity in the inner packing needs to be 1 liter. These small packing of 1 liters need to be packed in one single outer packing. The maximum size of the outer packing needs to be less than 30 Kgs (20 kgs if shrink packed). Excepted Quantity If you see under the excepted quantity (column 7b), there are codes like E0 and E1. These codes signify the maximum quantities in the inner and outer packing for that DG to be carried under excepted quantity. But you know it is much cheaper to have 200 kgs or 500 kgs of DG to be packed in one packing than to pack in smaller packs as per limited or exempted quantity. Then why would shipper use the provisions of limited or excepted quantity?  That is because IMDG code grants exemptions to some of the requirements if the goods are packed in limited quantity or excepted quantity. For example, the segregation requirements as per IMDG are not applicable to the Dangerous Goods packed as per limited or excepted quantity.  Click here to see further clarification of Limited Quantity and Excepted Quantity.

A: Here is how IMO defines the near miss A sequence of events and/or conditions that could have resulted in a loss.  The potential loss could be  human injury environmental damage negative business impact Let us look at few examples in each of these categories Sequence of events that could have resulted in human injury Thinner in a water bottle was left at the water cooler. This could result in a situation where a crew member drinks this thinner thinking it to be water. But as this was noticed in time and rectified before any incident, it will go as a Near Miss. A crew member working without a safety helmet with moving overhead crane in the engine room.  A crew member entered an enclosed space without ventilation. Luckily the enclosed space was not oxygen deficient and so crew came out unharmed but this could have led to an accident. Sequence of events that could have resulted in negative business impact A crew member double checks the manifold valves and finds that one manifold was not blanked. The closed valve was holding the cargo pressure. If the valve was leaking, it could have resulted in pollution. The Opening/closing speed of hydraulic valves was found to be too high. This could have resulted in pressure surge in the cargo line while closing the valve which could result in rupture of cargo line or cargo hose. Sequence of events that could have resulted in negative business impact Any navigational situation that required extreme measures from the navigator. For example "using the wheel hard over" or use of engine at open sea to avoid a collision. During watch hand over, taking over officer finds that ECDIS was being used in the wrong scale. There can be thousand of such examples of a near miss situation. Each of these examples would have one common point. That there was an event that did not result in injury or damage but had the potential to do so. I will try to add good examples in this answer as and when it comes to my mind. Do you know any other good example of near miss?

A: Ballast water is the talk of the town these days. Come 08th September 2017, the ballast water convention will enter into force. And with that, there will be more and more inspections focussing on how we manage ballast water. To avoid violation issues, it is important that we are sure of what is expected of us with regard to ballast water. Ballast water convention requires that 1. A ship conducting Ballast Water exchange to meet the standard in regulation D-1 shall: .1  whenever possible, conduct such Ballast Water exchange at least 200 nautical miles from the nearest land and in water at least 200 metres in depth, taking into account the Guidelines developed by the Organization; .2  in cases where the ship is unable to conduct Ballast Water exchange in accordance with paragraph 1.1, such Ballast Water exchange shall be conducted taking into account the Guidelines described in paragraph 1.1 and as far from the nearest land as possible, and in all cases at least 50 nautical miles from the nearest land and in water at least 200 metres in depth.  However as per Article 3 of the ballast water convention these rules of Ballast water convention does not apply to ships which only operate in waters under the jurisdiction of one Party and on the high seas, unless such Party determines that the discharge of Ballast Water from such ships would impair or damage their environment, human health, property or resources, or those of adjacent of other States; So in your case, I am not sure how close your ports are and if these ports are in one country. If these ports are close and are in the same country, ballast water exchange would not be required. However if these ports are in different country, each country in this case has their own ballast water requirements for such cases. For ship coming from Brazil and bound for Argentina have specific instructions for ballast water exchange. In any case, your ship's agent would have instructions about any specific ballast water requirements for ships arriving from nearby ports.    

A: I just wrote a detailed guide on damage stability that includes explanation of the term floodable length and permissible length. A Complete Guide to Understand Damage Stability Better If you have any further question on this, do not hesitate to ask.  

A: The only area where incinerator cannot operate is ports, harbours, and estuaries. An estuary is the wide part of the river that nears the sea. The incinerator can be operated in SECA also but only outside the port limits. There is no regulation that prohibits the ship to burn residues generated from HSFO in SECA. As per MARPOL Annex VI, Regulation 16, the incineration is prohibited for residues of cargoes subject to Annex I, II or III or related contaminated packing materials; polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); garbage, as defined by Annex V, containing more than traces of heavy metals; refined petroleum products containing halogen compounds; sewage sludge and sludge oil either of which is not generated on board the ship; and exhaust gas cleaning system residues. 

A: Each classification society has developed its rules for the design and construction of the ships and its machinery. These rules incorporate the standard rules developed by IACS and various IMO conventions. Rules related to the design and construction are taken care during the construction stage. For other rules, we are supposed to refer the IMO conventions. So usually there is never a need to refer classification society rules onboard. But even when we need a clarification of some rules, the shore staff contacts the classification society of the ship for that. If still required, a copy of classification society rules can be asked from the classification society. If you have the internet onboard, these rules can be found on the website of the classification society. For example, we can go to rules and standard page of DNV GL website. Clicking on this block will take us to subsections of the rules We can click on the required section to look for rules that we are searching for. We can also search for a rule on a particular subject by entering a search query.

A: As per MARPOL, the word en route means that the ship is underway at sea on a course or courses, including deviation from the shortest direct route, which as far as practicable for navigation purposes, will cause any discharge to be spread over as great an area of the sea as is reasonable and practicable In simple words, this means that ship should not be circling at a smaller area. The whole idea of including this concept in the MARPOL is that the allowed discharge (oil, chemicals etc) must be spread into the sea over a larger area. The MARPOL wants the ships to proceed ahead and it must not turn back and come to the same point again and again. While proceeding to its destination, ship may or may not take the shortest route but it must be proceeding towards it. Before the year 2010, if a chemical tanker had to clean the tanks and return back for loading in Rotterdam, it was not allowed by the Dutch authorities. In 2010, in one of the alledged MARPOL violation case that was based upon the definition of enroute, Dutch court clarified that a vessel can leave a port, clean the tank and return back and it will still be considered that the vessel was enroute. Needless to say that in this situation when the vessel is disposing off the washings, it must move in single direction and circle around.  Coming back to second part of the question. When a vessel has left the berth, it is already enroute. So with respect to OWS, the vessel has satisfied the condition of enroute. However rules of the local port authorities (and general sense as well as the company SMS) prohimbits the use of OWS in port limits. Port limits is generally the territorial waters of the port which extends to 12NM from the baseline. So it does not matter where and when commencment of sea passage (RFA) is given, OWS must only be started outside the port limits. 

A: We have to admit that quantifying the garbage produced on board is a work of estimation. It is really not uncommon to find the disparity in daily production of garbage under different individuals. This is obviously because different people may draw a different estimation of the same quantity of garbage. Some type of garbage is not difficult to quantify. For example, food waste can easily be quantified. If a bucket of 20 liters is full of food wastes, it simply becomes 0.02 cbm of food waste. The issue is with papers and plastics.  Good practice about garbage requires us to store the garbage in as compact form as possible. So while quantifying papers and plastics, these must first be packed in as compact way as possible. These bags when stored in 200 liters garbage drum can then easily be quantified. When estimating the quantity of garbage, one thing that we can avoid is the error in converting the units. 200 liters of plastic should not be entered as 0.02 cbm and 20 liters of food wastes should not be entered as 0.2 cbm.

A: Let us understand this by considering a hypothetical situation. Let us assume that India has not ratified MARPOL convention. There will be further two situations in this assumption. India would have its own pollution prevention rules India does not have any pollution prevention rules In the first case, there would be lesser ships eligible to enter in India which would mean higher costs for cargo transportation. India would not want that. In the second case, the coastline of the country would be at a higher risk of oil pollution. India would not want that either. In the third case, India can implement same rules as Marpol without ratifying it. This would be an illogical thing to do because if there is nothing in a convention that a state has to object, ratifying a convention would bring better cooperation among other states that have ratified the convention. 

A: The issue was raised by Marshall Island which proposed that the cooking oil should be allowed to be transferred to sludge tank and disposed of as per MARPOL Annex 1 requirements. Many countries opposed this proposal. After careful discussion on this topic, MEPC decided that cooking oil should be treated as a domestic garbage and should be dealt with as per the provisions of Annex V. So as such, cooking oil should either be disposed to a shore facility or incinerated with other garbage. But it cannot be mixed with the oil or in sludge tank.

A: One thing is for sure, both "Web Frames" and "Transverses" are strengthening members. Both of these strengthening members run in the athwartship direction. Let us understand these one by one. Transverse Actually speaking there is no term as "Transverse". There are Transverse beams Transverse bulkheads Transverse stiffners and so on   The common thing in all these is that these runs in transverse direction. Transverse is usually referred to minor strengthening member like a beam or stiffner.  

A: Enhanced survey programme applies to bulk carriers and oil tankers irrespective of the age of the ship. ESP provides the specific guidelines on how these ships need to be surveyed with respect to hull and structure of these ships. While these inspection guidelines apply to new ships but the onboard ESP records (Condition evaluation report and thickness measurement report) are only available after first renewal and dry dock survey. So onboard, you will not find ESP records for ships that are less than 5 years old.   Read more here about enhanced survey programme. Here is What You Need to Know about Enhanced Survey Programme

A: Frankly, I have never come across a system of operating the anchors from the bridge. But I have heard about it. As per my limited understanding on this system, this is only available on smaller ships and tug boats.   

A: When dealing with TSS situations, always keep this in mind. A vessel following a Traffic separation scheme does not get any special rights over any other vessel. So for all the TSS situations consider that if there is a risk of collision, the rules for that situation would apply. In the case of crossing situation in TSS, the rule 15 of the COLREGS would apply. 

A: Yes, these two surveys are usually conducted at the same time along with many other statutory surveys. But that is not a requirement to have these two surveys conducted together. These can be conducted on different dates. But all these certificates would remain valid for the same duration, which will also be the anniversary date under the harmonized system of survey and certification (HSSC). 

A:

A: If you are referring to the class additional notations, these are the notations which a ship is not required to have as per the rules but the ship has. For example, 

A: The required trim of the ship is decided during the meeting of the chief officer with docking master before the ship proceeds to the dry dock. Docking master gives the required information on the desired trim to the chief officer. Chief officer calculates the closest what he can achieve considering the weight distribution. Whatever the agreed trim, but it will never be zero trim. The ship will never be asked to dock the ship in even keel condition. Why? I will briefly summarize the procedure of how a ship is made to sit on the blocks. The ship is brought into the dock with the help of tugs. Then the ship's stern is made to touch the blocks. At this time a diver will go down and will check the alignment of the ship with respect to the blocks. If required the ship can be aligned with the help of tugs as until now the major part of ship's bottom is still floating. Once aligned, the ship is made to sit on the blocks. Now you can imagine what can happen if there is no trim. There will be no time to adjust and align the ship with respect to the blocks arrangements on which the ship is supposed to sit.   Read more about dry docking a ship, here: A complete guide of bringing a ship to dry dock

A: A ship is detained because of a considerable port state control deficiency or multiple deficiencies. With these deficiencies, if the port state officer feels that it is not safe for the ship to proceed to the sea, the ship will be detained. The detention order of the ship is lifted only when the deficiencies are corrected and in the opinion of the port state officer, when the ship is seaworthy. On the other hand, a ship may be arrested Because of willful violation of Local or international rules such as violation of MARPOL Because of a local court order, for example, because of a party exercising its lien on the ship.    

A: Bill of lading is the most important document with regard to commercial shipping.

A: In my opinion, we do not generally need to keep the steering motor on while alongside. But while alongside at a berth/port with current (such as in river ports), it is strongly advised to keep at least one steering motor on. This would prevent the rudder to move away from its mid-ship position due to current. If the steering motor is not kept switched on while along side a berth with the strong current, the current may bring the rudder hard over to one side. This may put extra strain on either the forward mooring or aft mooring depending upon to which side the current has put the rudder.  

A: Yes, it is required. But you do not need to key in the details again as you can just edit the last Arrival notice sent before arrival to the first US port.

A: The distance between two steps of the pilot ladder is required to be between 31cms to 35 cms. If we need to have the pilot ladder around 2 meters above the water level, that makes it around 6-7 steps of the pilot ladder. While rigging the pilot ladder, we can lower it to the level where the first step just touches the water surface and then lift the pilot ladder by 6-7 steps. That would make the pilot ladder rigger 2 meters above the water level. However, with practice, the crew members have a good sense of the distance and they do not even require to measure the distance and yet rig the pilot ladder very accurately. 

A: I had written a blog on loading TDI on the chemical tanker. Since MDI comes in the same category as TDI, the guide would be applicable to MDI too. Here is the blog post on TDI. A complete guide of loading TDI on board a chemical tanker If you have any specific question on loading of TDI/MDI, do not hesitate to ask here.

A: Muslin cloth would get dry when the water in the pot in which it is submerged becomes empty. The muslin cloth would continuously give up water to the dry air and keep on soaking itself from the water in the pot. This will go on until the pot is empty. Drier the air is, faster the muslin cloth would give up water (moisture) from it. 

A: The first point that we need to clarify is "if this disposal would come under annex V or Annex I? If it had to come under Annex V, there is only one category that the cargo sludge can fall into. That category is "Cargo Residues". Let us see how Annex V defines cargo residues? Cargo residues means the remnants of any cargo which are not covered by other Annexes to the present Convention and which remain on the deck or in holds following loading or unloading, including loading and unloading excess or spillage, whether in wet or dry condition or entrained in wash water but does not include cargo dust remaining on the deck after sweeping or dust on the external surfaces of the ship So, the definition of cargo residues as per Annex V clearly says that only remains of cargo that does not fall under any other annex of Marpol would be covered under Annex V. As the oil Sludge from the cargo tanks of an oil tanker falls under Annex I of the Marpol, this would definitely not fall under the definition of cargo residues as per Annex V. So oil cargo sludge disposal needs to be entered in Oil record book and not garbage record book. Cargo residues as per Annex V is considered to be generated on dry bulk carriers and occasionally on general cargo carriers when they transport dry cargoes in bulk.  Now that we know that this cargo sludge disposal entry needs to be in cargo record book, it is important that the entry itself is made correctly.  The entry needs to be made under heading J of the cargo record book. The entry could look something like this.  

A: Both the speed through water and speed over ground will change with the wind. It will increase of decrease would depend upon the relative direction of the wind. How much the speed would increase or decrease would depend upon the wind force and ship's windage area. To understand the concept of speed, we can think of a stationary ship and see what effect the wind will have with respect to a fixed object like an island, (speed over ground) and with respect to a floating object (speed through water). Let us see this situation where there is no wind, no current and no other external forces. After one hour how much would a ship have moved with respect to a fixed object (speed over ground) and with respect to a floating object (Speed through water)? I am sure your answer would be Zero. Now with the strong head wind, the ship would move and so in one hour the distance with respect to the island would have increased. This means that ship would have some speed over ground. If there are no sea ripples because of wind speed, the position of the floating object would not significantly change. Hence with respect to this floating object, the ship would have moved some distance in one hour. This means that ship would have some speed through the water. The conclusion is that speed over ground and speed through water will change with the wind. Though this is not the case with the current. Why?  For this and other detailed information on speed over ground and speed through water, you can read this blog. Speed Through water or speed over ground, Which one to use? 

A: From all the rules in the COLREGS, rule 1 and 2 are most difficult to interpret. Let us see what rule 1b and 1c says. Rule 1b Nothing in these Rules shall interfere with the operation of special rules made by an appropriate authority for roadsteads, harbours, rivers, lakes or inland waterways connected with the high seas and navigable by seagoing vessels. Such special rules shall conform as closely as possible to these Rules.  This rule is allowing the local authorities to have any special local rules for the navigation but these rules shall not interfere with the rules in the COLREGS. For example, in Singapore Strait, the MPA Singapore has made a rule which requires all the ships crossing the TSS in the night to display three all round green lights in a straight line. Rule 1a allows the authorities like MPA Singapore to have these rules. Three all around green lights is not there in any of the other rules in the COLREGS. So this rule does not interfere with any of the COLREGS. Rule 1c Nothing in these Rules shall interfere with the operation of any special rules made by the Government of any State with respect to additional station or signal lights, shapes or whistle signals for ships of war and vessels proceeding under convoy, or with respect to additional station or signal lights or shapes for fishing vessels engaged in fishing as a fleet. These additional stations or signal lights, shapes or whistle signals shall, so far as possible, be such that they cannot be mistaken for any light, shape or signal authorized elsewhere under these Rules.  This rule is with respect to the war ships or ships proceeding under the convoy. For example,  the ships proceeding in a convoy for transiting the Gulf of Aden may assign certain sound signal in case of a pirate attack. These sound signals, however, shall not be different from any of the sound signal required under the COLREGS. Same is the case with war ships. The government of a country may have sound and light signals for instructions to the navy ships. Rule 1c requires that these sound or light signals should not be similar to the ones in COLREGS. So while the content of the rules 1b and 1c is similar in nature,  Rule 1b is for any special rules made by the authorities for anchorages, harbours, rivers, lakes, and inland waterways Rule 1c is for any special rules made by the government for warships, ships in convoy or fishing vessels in convoy.  

A: I have written on Hague rules and Hague Visby rules previously. You can find these blogs here A basic and simplified guide of Hague Visby rules for seafarers Infographic: A Comparison Between Hague Rules and Hague Visby Rules If you have any specific question on Hague and Hague Visby rules, do not hesitate to ask.

A: The best way is to find the other copy of fire plan in the drawings box. Usually, there are additional copies provided by the yard and are normally found in one of the boxes of Hull drawings and plans. If there are none there, then we can have the color copies of the available fire plan made. As the size of the paper required is very large, you may need to make the arrangement for a xerox of this large plan with the agent beforehand. At the next opportunity of the class surveyor's visit, we can get these signed and stamped to make it original. If there is not even a single copy of the Fire control plan onboard, the ship must not allow the cargo operation. In this case, a copy may urgently be sought from the company if they have a copy kept at the office. Lastly if none of these works, a copy of fire plan need to be requested from the yard. On new ships, the yard also provides soft copies of all the plans and drawings. Soft copy of the Fire plan can be sent to the printing press for printing to the required size. The copies of the fire plan must be stamped by the classification society of the ship. It is important that the symbols on the fire plan are in color and are clearly legible.

A: Monthly inspection does not mean every 30 days. It does not either mean any day of the month. The difference between "Monthly" and "every 30 days" is that the word "monthly" is little flexible while "every 30 days" is not. So if there is a requirement to inspect something at least every 30 days, we cannot go beyond 30 days. The interval between two inspections needs to be less than 30 days. And if the requirement is for monthly inspection, the time interval between two inspections can be a little more than 30 days but only in certain circumstances where it was not possible to inspect the equipment on and near to the 30th day. This means that while the meaning of the word "monthly" is not exactly "30 days" but at the same time it does not mean that we inspect something on the 01st of March and then on 30th of April. As far as possible, it should be close to 30 days but we are allowed to go a little over 30 days. I am not sure if there is any document to support this but this explanation is purely based on the logic.

A: No, we cannot take the sextant altitude when it is dark. That is because if it is dark we would not be able to see the horizon. But if it isn't dark we cannot see the stars. Then how can we take the sextant altitude of the stars for the star sight? We can. We just need to know the right time. The time when there is enough sunlight to clearly see the horizon and enough darkness to clearly see the stars in the sky. What time is this? This time is the time for "Nautical twilight".  Twilight is the light received from the sun when the sun is below the horizon. That is before sunrise in the morning and after sunset in the evening. In the morning, the twilight starts when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon and it ceases with the sunrise. In the evening, the twilight starts with the sunset and ceases when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon. This twilight time is divided into three phases. Astronomical Twilight Nautical Twilight Civil Twilight It is the Nautical twilight that we are interested in. But we do not need to wait on the bridge wings and wonder when will be the nautical twilight. We can get the time for nautical twilight from the Almanac. Now from this time, we want to get the time when nautical twilight starts. The time given in the almanac are For the evening: Twilight times are the end of twilight times For the morning: Twilight times are the beginning of twilight times.  So if you want to take the star sight in the evening, to get the start of nautical twilight time, you need to look under the "civil twilight" column and not under "Nautical twilight" column. This is because in the evening time are the end of twilight times and end of civil twilight means the start of nautical twilight. Now let us say your ship's position is at 10 N / 76 E and the ship's time is 5 hours ahead of GMT. Let us calculate the time for the start of Nautical twilight in the evening. LMT for end of Civil Twilight: (18h  13m) LIT (Longitude 76E): (5h  4m) GMT for end of Civil Twilight: (13h  09m) SMT for end of Civil Twilight: 18h 09m So, in this case, you should be ready at sharp 1809 Hrs on bridge wing with your sextant for the star sight.

A: No, we cannot take the sextant altitude when it is dark. That is because if it is dark we would not be able to see the horizon. But if it isn't dark we cannot see the stars. Then how can we take the sextant altitude of the stars for the star sight? We can. We just need to know the right time. The time when there is enough sunlight to clearly see the horizon and enough darkness to clearly see the stars in the sky. What time is this? This time is the time for "Nautical twilight".  Twilight is the light received from the sun when the sun is below the horizon. That is before sunrise in the morning and after sunset in the evening. In the morning, the twilight starts when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon and it ceases with the sunrise. In the evening, the twilight starts with the sunset and ceases when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon. This twilight time is divided into three phases. Astronomical Twilight Nautical Twilight Civil Twilight It is the Nautical twilight that we are interested in. But we do not need to wait on the bridge wings and wonder when will be the nautical twilight. We can get the time for nautical twilight from the Almanac.

A: The first thing that we need to know is if the line content of the shore line will be blown into the ship's tanks or not. This information is part of ship shore operational agreement with the loading master before the commencement of the loading operation. Now let us say that in the ship shore operational agreement it is agreed that shore line will be blown into the ship's tanks. In this case, we need to know the volume of the shore line. Loading master will provide this information. Let us say the loading master has given 20 m3 as the shore line content. We have to load 2312 m3 of cargo in each of the two final topping up tanks (Say in 4P & 4S cargo tanks). That makes total cargo of 4624 m3 in these two tanks. Minus the shore line content, which means that we need to stop the cargo when total content in these two topping up tanks is 4604 m3. We also need to specify the final topping up rate in the ship shore operation agreement. Let us say it has been agreed with the loading master that final topping up rate will be 200 m3/hr. Now we can have an excel sheet where we have calculated the total volumes in these two tanks at the time of notices we need to give to the loading master. The excel sheet could look something like this. It is a good idea to have this sheet prepared and attached to the cargo loading plan so that we are not stuck with the calculation while topping up.

A: The first thing that we need to know is if the line content of the shore line will be blown into the ship's tanks or not. This information is part of ship shore operational agreement with the loading master before the commencement of the loading operation. Now let us say that in the ship shore operational agreement it is agreed that shore line will be blown into the ship's tanks. In this case, we need to know the volume of the shore line. Loading master will provide this information. Let us say the loading master has given 20 m3 as the shore line content. We have to load 2312 m3 of cargo in each of the two final topping up tanks (Say in 4P & 4S cargo tanks). That makes total cargo of 4624 m3 in these two tanks. Minus the shore line content, which means that we need to stop the cargo when total content in these two topping up tanks is 4604 m3. We also need to specify the final topping up rate in the ship shore operation agreement. Let us say it has been agreed with the loading master that final topping up rate will be 200 m3/hr. Now we can have an excel sheet where we have calculated the total volumes in these two tanks at the time of notices we need to give to the loading master. The excel sheet could look something like this.

A: P&I Clubs are the risk sharing clubs comprising of the various ship owners.  Think of it in terms of car insurance that we pay. Now, what if 100 car owners get together and make a club. This club would cover (contribute) to the damage of any car in that club. So if there is no accident for one year, there would be no insurance cost for the cars. Each car owner saves money this way. This is called mutual sharing of risk. The principle of working of P&I clubs is the same. It works on the mutual sharing of risk. For more detailed information on P&I clubs and its functioning, you can read this blog. Here is All You Wanted to Know About P&I Clubs 

A: When taking a sight by sextant, the important thing is the angle between the position lines. So if we are taking the Sun sight, we need two position lines separated by as close as possible to 90 degrees. This is done by taking first sight in the morning and calculating it by Long by Chron method. Then take the second sight at the Noon and calculating it by MERPAS method. Long by Chron will give us position line running in N-S direction (as Obs long) and MERPAS will give us position line in E-W direction (as obs latitude). While taking star sight (that includes planets and moon), we need to choose 3 stars which are at least 45 degrees apart from each other. This ensures that the position lines that we will get by star sight are not running parallel to each other.   

A: As the name suggests, this certificate mentions how many minimum crews need to be on board to run the ship. This certificate sets the minimum crew requirements and the ship managers can have any number of crew above the numbers mentioned in this certificate subject to the capacity of life saving appliances. You can read more about the minimum safe manning certificate and other statutory and mandatory certificate here. Why it is so Important to Know About Statutory and Mandatory Certificates ?

A: I have written a detailed post on ordering and correcting ENCs on JRC ECDIS using chartco. I hope this could be of some help. You can read this blog on the below link. A step by step guide to ordering and correcting charts on ECDIS

A: The noon position is the ship's position at 1200 Hrs LT. The position at the Meridian passage is the position of the ship when the sun is on the observer's celestial meridian. That is when the sun is directly (and exactly) above the observer's head. The reason that Meridian passage will not occur at exactly 1200 Hrs are Because of many factors such as inclination of the earth, Mer-pass may occur at few minutes before (for example at 1156 Hrs LMT) or a few minutes later (for example 1204 Hrs LMT) than noon time. The SMT is not always LMT so the time of Mer-pass may be well after or well before noon time depending upon what time we are maintaining on the ship.  The Mer-Pass time for the Sun is given in the Nautical Almanac as LMT time. This can be converted to the SMT to get the exact ship's time when the sun will be at the Mer-Pass. 

A: Apart from flag state requirements, sometimes the company also has their requirements for the medicines to be carried on board. The first reference to be followed is the SMS manual of the ships. The requirement for medicines is usually listed in the Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) manual provided on the ships by the company as part of the ISM code. The HSE manual may specify the exact quantity of the medicines to be maintained on board or it may just have a statement where it asks to refer a publication such as "International medical guide for ships". So the first thing that you should refer is the SMS manuals provided on the ship. 

A: For international transport, UN number is considered to be the synonyms of the "dangerous good". So if the cargo has a UN number, it is considered dangerous. If there is no UN number assigned to the cargo, the cargo is not considered dangerous. But before I close my answer, there is one thing that needs to be clarified. I often see that anywhere the information about "dangerous goods" is asked, we tend to provide the information of the cargo carried by the tankers. For example, information asked by VTS or in the pre-arrival information required by the agents. What they are actually interested in is the "dangerous goods in packaged form" and not dangerous goods in bulk. Tankers generally are considered to be dangerous (loaded as well as in ballast). It is for any dangerous goods in a packaged form that require attentions.  

A: So we want to measure hydrocarbons as a percentage of LEL and percentage of Volume.  I have seen HC meters that measures %LEL and those that measure %Volume of HC. And I have seen explosimeters that measure hydrocarbons as both %LEL and %Volume. These do not switch automatically from LEL to volume and vice versa. There is a knob which needs to be turned to the desired measurement unit. Though I have never come across an explosimeter that would automatically switch to % volume when the LEL reaches close to 100%, I won't be surprised if there is one. Now coming to the 2nd part of the question. How can the explosimeter identify what percentage of Volume equals to 100% of the LEL? Well, the equipment can not identify this. We have to check the manual of the gas meter to check what gas it is supposed to measure or is tested with. This is the gas that we need to calibrate the gas meter with. So if the gas meter is calibrated with iso-butane and the 100% of LEL for isobutane is equal to 1.8% of the volume, then the gas meter will correlate to these values when measuring.  But what if the measured gas is different from the gas with which the equipment is calibrated. In this case we need to apply the appropriate correction factor to the readings we get with the gas meter. Now we must be wondering why we never apply these correction factors on oil tankers even when the measured gas may be different from the calibration gas? Most of the gas meters are calibrated with iso-butane and LEL value of this is close to 1% of the volume (1.8% volume). The LEL value of other HC gases is either close to this or more than this value. So even if we do not apply the correction, we are keeping ourself on the safer side. I hope that clarifies. Any other related question, do not hesitate to ask.  

A: So we want to measure hydrocarbons as a percentage of LEL and percentage of Volume.  I have seen HC meters that measures %LEL and those that measure %Volume of HC. And I have seen explosimeters that measure hydrocarbons as both %LEL and %Volume. These do not switch automatically from LEL to volume and vice versa. There is a knob which needs to be turned to the desired measurement unit. Though I have never come across an explosimeter that would automatically switch to % volume when the LEL reaches close to 100%, I won't be surprised if there is one. Now coming to the 2nd part of the question. How can the explosimeter identify what percentage of Volume equals to 100% of the LEL? Well, the equipment can not identify this. We have to check the manual of the gas meter to check what gas it is supposed to measure or is tested with. This is the gas that we need to calibrate the gas meter with. So if the gas meter is calibrated with iso-butane and the 100% of LEL for isobutane is equal to 1.8% of the volume, then the gas meter will correlate to these values when measuring.  But what if the measured gas is different from the gas with which the equipment is calibrated. In this case we need to apply the appropriate correction factor to the readings we get with the gas meter.

A: There is no such document because some of the requirements change as per the flag. For example, one flag may have the requirement for annual shore servicing of the Fire extinguishers and other flag states may require that the annual servicing can be performed by the ship staff. So while some requirements set by the IMO regarding servicing of the LSA FFA are straight forward, many requirements ask the flag states to define the conditions. The best place to look for these requirements is the checklist (or PMS) of the company and/or any flag circular from the flag of the ship with this regard.   

A: Both IBC and BCH codes apply to the chemical tanker. Both these codes provide an international standard for the safe carriage in bulk by the sea of dangerous chemicals and noxious liquid substances. Both these codes prescribe the design and construction standards of ships and the equipment they should carry, with due regard to the nature of the products involved But the main difference between these codes lies in its applicability. The BCH code is applicable to the chemical tankers built before 1 July 1986. The IBC code is applicable to the chemical tankers built after 1 July 1986.  For further info, you can read my answer to this question. Why was there a need for making a new IBC code?

A: I am not sure if you meant "Full Ahead" or "Full away". But I will answer with both scenarios. Full away to Stop Let us say that the ship is proceeding at sea with navigation full (Full away) speed. Now if we put the telegraph to "STOP", nothing would happen and the engine will continue to run at Full RPM. This is because after the "Commencement of Sea Passage" the engine control would be with the engine room. If we put the telegraph to "Stop" all that will happen is that there will be an alarm in the engine room for both the telegraphs not being in sync.  Full Ahead to Stop Now let us say that the ship is maneuvering at full ahead. In an emergency, if you wish to put the telegraph to "Stop", what will happen? Again there will not be any harm.  The engine's "load program" will activate, the rpm will start reducing slowly and after sometimes the RPM will become zero. I see it so many times during maneuvering that when I order "Slow ahead" from "Full Ahead" (or "Stop" from "half ahead"), the duty officer would put the telegraph first to "half ahead' then wait for some time and then put it to "slow ahead". Ideally, if we need to go to "Slow ahead" from "Full Ahead" during maneuvering, we can just go to "Slow ahead" directly without waiting with the telegraph at "half ahead' position. There are limiters set in the modern engines and these limiters take care of gradually reducing the RPM irrespective of the command given from the wheelhouse.    But if you need to have the engines stopped faster, then you need to cancel the limits by pressing this button. This would cancel certain limits to stop the engine faster. But if you are in the dire emergency state, you need to initiate "Crash stop" or "crash astern procedures". These procedures are posted on the wheelhouse and navigators must know about it. In any case,  while informing the engine room about these procedures being initiated, do not forget to declare the emergency by using the word "emergency". 

A: The question has already been asked before on this platform. You can read the answer on the below link. What is P and I club? If you have any other specific question on P and I clubs, do not hesitate to ask.

A: The first few things that a second mate must prepare and know upon receipt of voyage instructions are Do the destinations ports have enough water depth in relation to the ship's drafts at these ports? Do the UKC calculation for the destination ports and its approaches to check that. If UKC does not comply with the company UKC policy, inform Master. The approx distance between each of the destination ports (First information that everyone would ask for sending ETAs and fuel calculations etc)  Do the vessel have all the charts (or ENCs) to reach the destination ports? Softwares like Chartco and Digitrace help in finding this. If these softwares are not provided on board, use Admiralty chart catalog. Order any ENC, charts, and publication that is not on board. Finally, 2nd mate needs to check if the vessel can reach the destination ports. Following resources helps in doing that Ocean passages of the world Sailing directions for that area Your company circular on any related port information Planning charts (small scale charts)  After you have laid down the courses on the planning charts, you can then take out the large scale charts and lay the course on these charts. Prepare the passage plan in the company form and keep it ready for navigating officers after getting it approved from the Master. I will cover this topic in more details in my future blogs.

A: I am sure you must have already gone through the good books of basic stability. The one written in the easiest language is that written by Capt Subramanium. But I completely understand that sometimes the concepts are not easy to grasp. I have lined up few stability topics to write and you will get to read these soon. 

A: Here is a blog that I wrote sometimes back on York Antwerp rules and general average. I hope this could be of some help. York Antwerp Rules and General Average, Everything you Need to Know If you have any other specific question on this subject, do not hesitate to ask.

A: IMO defines PSSA as A Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) is an area that needs special protection through action by IMO because of its significance for recognized ecological or socio-economic or scientific reasons and which may be vulnerable to damage by international maritime activities. IMO has set the criteria for designation of an area as PSSA. A flag state that feels that any of its areas meets any of the requirements for designation of PSSA can submit the request with the IMO. If the IMO designate this area as PSSA, there are one of these measures that will be implemented. The area may be adopted as a special area under Marpol Annex I, II, V or VI. The designated PSSA may be marked as the "Area to be avoided" or routing measures may be implemented. The IMO will have the details of the measures included on the charts and other relevant nautical publications. Now coming to the 2nd part of the question. Do we need to avoid "PSSA"? No. Not always. We just need to follow what measures PSSA has implemented to protect the area. If it has designated an "area to be avoided", we need to make sure that we do not sail in these areas. If the PSSA requires that a reporting system need to be followed for passing the PSSA, we must follow these reporting requirements. If the PSSA requires that vessel can only pass the PSSA through the designated TSS for the area, we must keep the vessel in the TSS and follow the TSS. The whole idea is to follow the measures adopted by the IMO for that particular PSSA. It is not necessary that these measures would always mean that International shipping cannot use these areas.

A: Let us be frank here. We seafarers (including Masters) do not understand how the shipping business works. I’m not trying to be rude––heck, I tell this to myself every day! I’m trying to make a point. The things that may look logical to us can land us in trouble if we allow these to happen. We just need to be careful while dealing with these things.  Letter of Indemnity is one of such things. The most common LOI that a master encounter is the LOI for the discharge of cargo without receiving the original bill of lading at the discharge port. Let us understand LOI with this example. The receiver of the cargo (or consignee) needs to provide the original bill of lading to the master for discharging the cargo to them. But sometimes the bill of lading may not reach to the receiver before the ship's arrival at discharge port. In this case, the receiver will provide the LOI, indemnifying the owners, charterers, and master of any consequences of discharging the cargo without production of the original bill of lading. Should the master accept this LOI and discharge the cargo? Well, the master needs to receive specific instructions from the shipowner that the LOI has been received by them and they have checked it for wording and it is OK to discharge the cargo without the original bill of lading. Master must not just get the LOI and discharge the cargo without the owner's approval and instructions. Same goes for other types of LOI's such as LOI for change in cargo destination other than that mentioned in the bill of lading. Even though the risks imposed by the use of LOI are not covered by the P&I clubs, use of LOI is something that becomes unavoidable for the shipowners. But there are certain LOIs that a master must not accept irrespective of if the shipowners have accepted these LOI or not. These are the LOIs that misrepresent the facts. The most common example of such LOI is the one that may be offered by the shipper for a clean bill of lading even when a damaged cargo is loaded on the ship. The shipper may offer to issue an LOI which will indemnify the shipowners and master for the issue of a clean bill of lading. But this LOI will have no legal value. Here is another example where master must not accept the LOI. Let us say a chemical tanker is loading a polymerizing cargo. These are the cargoes that tend to polymerize in normal conditions. To stop these cargoes to polymerize, a certain amount of inhibitor is added to the cargo by the shipper. The shipper is supposed to provide "Inhibitor certificate" to the master. Now if the shipper does not provide this inhibitor certificate and ask the master to accept the LOI that would state that shipper will bear the responsibility if cargo starts to polymerize. If master accepts this LOI and sails the ship without inhibitor certificate, it would be considered that master risked the ship and its crew. Master cannot accept LOI that may pose a threat to the ship.   So to answer your question directly. That is when the master can accept the LOI? The master can accept the LOI when It has been instructed by the shipowner that the said LOI can be accepted  The LOI does misrepresent the facts or there is no false information in the LOI The LOI is not issued to hide some fact Actions requested with the issue of LOI does not pose any safety threat to the vessel, crew or the environment.  

A: We all know that most of the lifeboats of titanic were lowered with half the lifeboat capacity. Do you know why? Because people thought the lifeboats would break if it is filled to its capacity.  What can be done to have our confidence in our equipments and the ship? If we are sure that our equipments would work as desired, we will have the confidence to use these to its capacities. All the statutory surveys (annual, intermediate and renewal surveys) ensures that the ship's equipments work as desired. IMO conventions define the scope of these surveys (including annual surveys). 

A: If the vessel has a condition of class, it is allowed to sail and carry out operations as usual with the deficiency that contributed to having the condition of class imposed. Port state cannot detain the ship because of this deficiency or even list that as a deficiency because it has temporarily been taken care of as per the classification society's recommendations.  However, it is no more business, as usual, these days. No one wants to associate themselves with a ship having a condition of class. Many charterers would not hire a ship with the condition of class. On tankers, the SIRE companies (Oil major) may withdraw their approval for the ship if the ship has a deficiency that led to the condition of class. So even though ships are allowed to sail and operate with the condition of class, it may be difficult to find the cargo for the ship if it has a condition of class until the deficiency is rectified and condition of class is revoked. 

A: I have heard many explanations for why the give way vessel in a crossing situation shall avoid crossing ahead of the other vessel. The most common explanation I hear is that you do not want to be in direct line with a vessel approaching towards you. But all these explanations do not make any sense. You know why? Because in a crossing situation, one vessel has to cross ahead of another vessel. If the give way vessel passes astern of the stand-alone vessel, then the stand-alone vessel is passing ahead of the give way vessel. Then why it is preferred for the give way vessel in a crossing situation to not to cross ahead of the other vessel? There are few logical reasons. 1) It is easier to make out if the vessel will pass clear The first reason is that it becomes easier for the give way vessel to make out if the vessel will pass clear of the other vessel. The give way vessel just have to alter course to aim for the stern of the other vessel. Look at this picture. Without giving any other data or values I will ask you this question. Will the give way vessel pass clear of the other vessel after alteration of course as indicated in the below picture? I am sure your answer would be, Yes the vessels will pass clear for sure. But now let us see the same situation with give way vessel passing ahead of another vessel. Well, in this case, the answer would be, the vessels may pass clear or may not pass clear. 2) The time for the vessels to cross If the give way vessel tries to pass ahead of another vessel, the whole crossing situation will take more time to complete. But if the give way vessel passes astern of the other vessel, the give way vessel will be able to cross in comparatively lesser time. Why is this important? This is important because as a give way vessel, we want to alter the course, pass the other vessel and come back to our course quickly. 3) CPA is close to the Bow crossing range In a crossing situation, if the give way vessel tries to pass ahead of the other vessel, the CPA will be closer to the bow crossing range. This means that in this case when the give way vessel is right ahead of the other vessel, the vessels may be too close to each other. Unless you are maintaining a good CPA of more than 1.5 NM, this situation can scare the hell out of the give way vessel. The give way vessel may find the other vessel too close visually which may prompt a wrong action from either of the vessels in the last minute. On the other hand, if the give way vessel passes astern of another vessel, the bow crossing range would be much earlier than the CPA. So both the vessels would have crossed each other before the CPA and at the time of CPA, both the vessels would know that the distance between them is increasing and there is nothing to worry about it.  Visually this is not a very disturbing picture as with the give way vessel crossing ahead of another vessel.

A: Classification society does not issue any plan, they just approve it or endorse it. So if there is any change in the fire plan, it is the duty of the shipowners (and master) to present the new fire plan to the classification society for approval and endorsement. Now the question is how to amend the fire plan? Ideally, we should use mini symbols stickers to update the fire plan. These stickers are available and supplied by many suppliers such as Everlux Maritime and marine sign solutions. Once the fire plan has been updated with these mini stickers and quantity of the fire fighting equipments updated in the fire plan, this updated fire plan can be presented to the class surveyor. He will then stamp and initial at each location of the fire plan where these changes are made. We must make sure that all the copies of fire plan are updated and endorsed by the classification society surveyor. Any copy that has not been updated must be updated and kept at a safer place for endorsement by a class surveyor during his next visit. Now, what if you do not have these mini stickers. I have seen makeshift arrangements of downloading the IMO symbols and taking the color printout of these symbols and using these to amend the fire plan.  This is acceptable provided that the print is clear and only IMO symbol is used on the fire plan. However, it is strongly recommended to use the mini stickers to amend the fire plan. Coming to second part of the question. If some symbols got scratched or damaged, can we repair it on our own? Absolutely. We can. But we must have at least one approved fire plan to prove that the pasted symbol is not an amendment but a repair work. It is a good practice to get these repair work also endorsed by the class surveyor whenever he/she boards the ship for any other survey. They are happy to endorse these changes or repair works on fire plan (and they do not charge shipowners for these endorsements if done during their usual visit to the ship).  You may also read  What to do if Fire Plan is damaged? How can we request for a new copy?

A: Anything that can be erased and rewritten without getting noticed cannot be an acceptable means of writing deck logbook or official logbooks. So the log books cannot be written with an erasable pen. Even if something needs to be corrected in the log book, it needs to be done by striking the erratic content with one single line in such a way that the text can be read even after striking it. The whole idea of the log book records is that no one should be able to amend it at their will without such changes getting noticed. It is also required that if any line is left blank in the log book, it should be stricken down with a line so that it is not able to be used later for writing something.   

A: Calibration with gas bottles is called span correction and I will use that term in this answer. Let us understand the zero correction and span correction in gas meters. Let us say that we get following readings at various levels or concentration of a gas. You would see that in this case we have a constant error of 5. And this error is because zero of the gas meter is not matching and that error in zero is being carried to all other readings. This is the zero error. Now say in fresh air when gas meter should show zero reading instead of 5, we correct the gas meter reading to zero. You would notice that all the other readings will also start showing correctly because we have corrected the constant error (zero error) that the gas meter had. Now take this second example. You would notice that the error is not constant but is increasing as the gas concentration value increases. You would also note that in this case, the error is 10% of the actual gas concentration. In this case, if we correct any readings (for example when gas concentration is 25) with the span correction, all other readings will get automatically corrected. Span correction will reduce all the readings by 10%. This would not affect zero reading because 10% of zero is zero itself. Now finally take the third case. Here the gas meter has both the zero error as well as span error. In this case if we try to do the span correction first, the gas meter will still not show the correct reading. First we need to correct the zero error of 2 and then do the span correction to correct the span error of 10%. Here are the take away points regarding gas meters calibration. Zero calibration corrects the zero error which is the fixed error in all the reading including at zero value. Span calibration corrects the variable error (increasing error with increase in value). Span correction does not affect the zero correction. While doing any calibration on gas meters, we first need to check any zero error and correct it. After we have corrected zero error, we can then check for span error and correct it if found. 

A: So we want to measure certain distance on the ship. We can either stretch out the measurement tape and measure it but it would be a tedious process and with error too. This is because it would be difficult to measure across the ship's edges and some areas might be inaccessible. Alternatively we can easily measure these distances from the ship's plans. Let us say we want to measure distance from keel to the bridge deck. Lay out the General arrangement plan or use the one displayed in the accomodation. Take a scale and measure the distance. Measure this reading accurately as any small error in this reading will get amplified when you convert this reading to the actual distance. Avoid the parallex error during measurement, i.e keep your eye in line with the reading to be measured on the scale. Let us say we get this reading as 19.5 centimeters. Now look at the scale of the general arrangement plan. The scale is usually mentioned at the bottom right cornor of the plan. In this case, the scale is 1/200. This means that whatever reading we get from the plan, we need to multiply it by 200. So the actual distance of the ship corresponding to the the distnace of 19.5 cms on the drawing will be equal to 19.5 x 200 = 3900 cms. This means that the actual distance from the keel to the bridge deck for this ship is 39 meters.

A: Testing of bunker line need to be done

A: Apart from the points made by Vinod, if a ship drags her anchor we need to act fast to avoid contact with other vessels in the vicinity.  Time will be short and we cannot allow ourself to use a share of this time in having the steering ready. Steering gear must be ready and operational while the ship is at anchor. 

A:

A: Hmmm... The question had me thinking for some time but here is the best logic and reason that I could think of. I feel the answer to this question lies in knowing why do we need to have a code. I have covered that in the answer to this question. What is the difference between convention and code? In brief,  a code is brought to bring down the size of the convention and to make the convention easy to understand and easy to read by giving the reference to the code wherever it is required Now coming back to the question. Why no code for oil tankers? Let us look for an answer to this why understanding why do we have IBC code and IGC code. IBC Code The requirements for chemical tankers are governed by SOLAS Chapter VII and Marpol annex II. Having two similar requirements in two different conventions can lead to confusion. So instead we have IBC code, reference to which is made in both these convention (SOLAS and MARPOL), wherever required in SOLAS Chapter VII and MARPOL Annex II. IGC Code  Requirements for the gas tankers are governed by the chapter VII of the SOLAS. SOLAS is a bulky convention and to reduce the size of SOLAS and to make it readable, several codes have been drawn from it. IGC code is one of these codes. There is no separate code for oil tankers because unlike chemical tankers, the requirements for oil tankers are not governed by two or more conventions. These are only governed by Annex I of the MARPOL. And unlike gas tankers, the requirements for the oil tankers are not governed by a bulky convention like SOLAS. These are governed by the MARPOL the size of which is manageable without having a separate code. If the size of the MARPOL convention increases with new regulations and annexes, the IMO may decide in future to reduce the size of MARPOL convention by introducing new codes. But at this time it is manageable, and for that reason IMO has not introduced a separate code for oil tankers.     

A: The old versions of Framo pumps were of two types with respect to the loading of the cargo. One that was fitted with an anti-rotating unit; and The one that was NOT fitted with anti-rotating units  Loading through the Framo pumps without anti-rotating units was not allowed. This is because as we load the cargo through it, the impeller of the pump would rotate in opposite direction which could damage the pump seals, impeller or even hydraulic motor because of additional back pressure created by pump rotating in the opposite direction. With the anti-rotating unit fitted in the Framo pump, we could load the cargo through the pump as the anti-rotating unit would not allow the impeller to rotate in opposite direction. But this system was a long time back. The Framo pumps have seen many technological changes since then.  The modern Framo pumps rotate only in one direction. So even if we load through the pump, it is fine. But there are some rules for this. Rule #1: If a drop line is installed it is highly recommended to use the drop line and avoid loading through the pump. Rule # 2: For loading through the pump, follow the instructions provided in the Framo manual. Rule # 3: Never exceed the cargo pressure to more than 8 bar measured at the top of the pump (pump stack). Once these rules are followed, it should be safe to load through the pump (through discharge line).  This blog may be of further help on the topic of Framo pumps. A Basic But Helpful Guide On Framo System

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A: Broadly, it will depend if the second engineer is the ship security officer or not. In many companies second engineer is the designated ship security officer. If so then the 2nd engineer need to perform all the duties which includes  Regular security inspections on the ship Implementation of the ship security plan onboard Reporting any security related deficiencies on board to the company security officer enhancing security awareness onboard and conducting security training Reporting any security related incidents Maintaining security equipments What if we are talking about second engineer's role in implementation of ISPS when he/she is not ship security officer? Well then the area of responsibility is reduced to only engine room but the responsibilities remains the same. Let us discuss few of these.  1. Controlling access to the Engine room Second engineer is responsible for the security aspects in the engine room and as such he must have the control of access into the engine room. This would include that during port stays, he must ensure that there is only one access to the engine room. 2. Controlling access to the key areas such as CO2 room CO2 can be used as a weapon and 2nd engineer must ensure that the access to it is controlled specially during the port stay. Usually CO2 room is locked with one key in the ECR and other in the CCR. 3. Supervising and handling engine room stores Other key security area is ship's stores. Second engineer must supervise receiving of the engine stores. He must check that the stores received are as per the invoice and what was ordered. 4. Citadel equipments in place On most of the ships, engine room or ECR is the designated CITADEL. If so, 2nd engineer must ensure that CITADEL equipments are in place, are working. Also the ration and water in the citadel is appropriate and as required.   5. Main engine and other machinary ready to deal with any security incident And finally, the second engineer must ensure that the main engine and other ship's machinary is maintained in good working order to deal with any security incident. For example, fire pumps are required to give good water pressure as a deterrance for access to the ship. Main engines are required to operate at MCR when passing high risk area. Auxilary engines and main engine are required to withstand the load of sudden course alterations in case of a pirate attack.  All these equipments must be able to work at their optimum capacity. Maintaining these machineries contributes towards the ISPS duties of the second engineer.

A: Can the ship's superintendent become DPA and should the ship's superintendent become DPA will have different answers. Can the ship's superintendent become DPA? The answer would be Yes. As per ISM code every Company, as appropriate, should designate a person or persons ashore having direct access to the highest level of management. The responsibility and authority of the designated person or persons should include monitoring the safety and pollution-prevention aspects of the operation of each ship and ensuring that adequate resources and shore-based support are applied, as required  So as per ISM code, the only requirement for being a designated person is that he/she should have direct access to the highest level of management. The company can always claim that the ship's superintendent has the access to the highest level of management. MSC.MEPC-7/Circ 6 gives the details of qualification, training, and experience required for the designated person of the company.   After the required training, the ship's superintendent can easily fit into these requirements and can be the designated person for the company. Some flag states may have their own requirements for the qualification of the designated person. For example, DG shipping India desires the DPA to have at least two years sailing experience as Master or chief engineer of the ship. In all these requirements, nothing stops a ship's superintendent to be designated person of the company. But then the question is, should the ship's superintendent become DPA? And my answer would be NO. I have even seen few companies having appointed the deputy marine superintendent as the designated person. But the question remains, can a deputy marine superintendent who has just been inducted into the shore set up fulfill the expectations required of his role as a DPA.   Now the ship's superintendents may have been given the authority and access to the highest level of management but the question is, how easily a ship's superintendent will be able to exercise that authority? Not very easily, I would say. But all these points are applicable to a bigger company (Vertical organizations). Smaller companies have lesser shore staff and thus the highest level of management is not too high in the hierarchy from the ship's superintendents. A superintendent in this company would most likely not hesitate to talk to the highest level of management for any issue on board. So in a bigger company, ship's superintendent should not be the DPA though he/she can be as per rules. But in a smaller company, there is no harm in having a ship's superintendent as the DPA. 

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A: The biggest mistake I see navigators make in understanding the COLREGS is mixing the rules under different parts and sections of COLREGS. If we understand that "Steering and sailing rules" are divided into three sections, it will make it much easier to understand COLREGS. So what are these three sections? In good visibility, the rules and actions are based upon three aspects of the target. These rules are Head on situation: when the target is right ahead or nearly right ahead. Crossing situation: When the target is crossing the vessel Overtaking Situation: When the target is overtaking own vessel or is being overtaken by own vessel  But for restricted visibility, the rules and actions are based upon only two aspects. These are When the target is forward of the beam When the target is abeam or abaft the beam Now when dealing with these rules, we must not mix this. If dealing with restricted visibility rules, we must only think of targets as either "forward of the beam" or "Abeam or abaft the beam". So when talking about "Overtaking in restricted visibility", this needs to be addressed as "target abaft the beam" and not "overtaking.  If you wish to know what action we are supposed to take in these situations, read these resources. Infographic: Actions required in restricted visibility as per COLREG rule 19 8 COLREG rules every navigating officer must understand  

A: Yes. a 2nd officer can sail with his/her GMDSS license expired. As per the STCW rules, only two officers need to have valid GMDSS license. So if the Master, chief officer and 3rd officer on board has valid GMDSS license, the 2nd officer can continue to sail with GMDSS license expire.

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A: On chemical tankers, preparing the cargo tanks for wall wash cargo is a tough job.

A: The reference of damage stability requirements is provided in the SOLAS chapter II for passenger and cargo ships and in MARPOL Annex I for tankers.  For cargo ships other than tankers and passenger ships, the cargo carried is solid and in case of breach of the ship's hull the cargo will not flow out. Only the sea water would flood inside. In this case, it becomes easier to calculate the effect on ship's stability because of damage. The damage stability requirements for these ships are thus based on the proper subdivision of the ship so that the ship can withstand the pre-defined damage conditions. SOLAS chapter II-1 thus provides the regulations for Subdivision, watertight and watertight integrity (SOLAS Chapter II-1, Part B-2) The required subdivision index (SOLAS Chapter II, Regulation 6) The procedure to calculate the attained subdivision index (SOLAS Chapter II, Regulation 7) How much damage to assume (Damage assumptions) to calculate if the ship complies with these requirements (SOLAS chapter II, regulation 9)  In layman's language, SOLAS defines how many minimum bulkheads or compartments the vessel must have. So for cargo ships, these damage requirements are met during the building stage. But for tankers, it is a different case altogether. The stability after a damage would depend upon the location of the damage, the location of the cargo and so many other factors. This is because in this case not only will the water can flood inside, the cargo can flow out too. For this reason, the damage stability requirements for the tankers are also based upon the stowage of the cargo. For this reasons, MARPOL Annex I not only defines the extent of damage (damage assumptions) but also the minimum stability requirements after the damage. Before departure from each loading port, we are required to ensure that damage stability requirements are met for this stowage. Where is it written? It is written in MARPOL Annex 1, Regulation 28. Here is what paragraph 3 of this regulation requires regarding the stability after a damage. Read more on damage stability by clicking below link. A Complete Guide to Understand Damage Stability Better

A: The reference of damage stability requirements is provided in the SOLAS chapter II for passenger and cargo ships and in MARPOL Annex I for tankers.  For cargo ships other than tankers and passenger ships, the cargo carried is solid and in case of breach of the ship's hull the cargo will not flow out. Only the sea water would flood inside. In this case, it becomes easier to calculate the effect on ship's stability because of damage. The damage stability requirements for these ships are thus based on the proper subdivision of the ship so that the ship can withstand the pre-defined damage conditions. SOLAS chapter II-1 thus provides the regulations for Subdivision, watertight and watertight integrity (SOLAS Chapter II-1, Part B-2) The required subdivision index (SOLAS Chapter II, Regulation 6) The procedure to calculate the attained subdivision index (SOLAS Chapter II, Regulation 7) How much damage to assume (Damage assumptions) to calculate if the ship complies with these requirements (SOLAS chapter II, regulation 9)  In layman's language, SOLAS defines how many minimum bulkheads or compartments the vessel must have. So for cargo ships, these damage requirements are met during the building stage. But for tankers, it is a different case altogether. The stability after a damage would depend upon the location of the damage, the location of the cargo and so many other factors. This is because in this case not only will the water can flood inside, the cargo can flow out too. For this reason, the damage stability requirements for the tankers are also based upon the stowage of the cargo. For this reasons, MARPOL Annex I not only defines the extent of damage (damage assumptions) but also the minimum stability requirements after the damage. Before departure from each loading port, we are required to ensure that damage stability requirements are met for this stowage. Where is it written? It is written in MARPOL Annex 1, Regulation 28. Here is what paragraph 3 of this regulation requires regarding the stability after a damage.

A: I feel that showing the starboard profile in the ship's plans and drawings has become a norm now. Ship architect follow the same practice that has been followed for hundreds of the years now. This becomes easier for them to use the pre-existing pattern. But that is not the only reason for using the starboard profile of the ship. Most of the times, the equipments like rescue boat and davit launched liferafts are located on the starboard side of the ship. To show these additional equipments (Additional to that of the port side of the ship), it is better to show the starboard side profile of the ship. If for some ships, these are located on the port side of the ship, then I feel it is the port side that is shown (or need to be shown) for the ship's profile in the plans and drawings. Do you know a ship with where rescue boat is located on the port side ? Which side profile is shown in the plans or drawings of that ship ? Let me know in the comments here.  

A: When a tanker is all fast at a berth and before cargo loading or unloading could start, Chief officer and loading master are supposed to go through the safety checklist called "Ship-Shore safety checklist". The format of the checklist is provided in the ISGOTT but it is also supposed to be a checklist in SMS manual of the ship. In the ship shore safety checklist, there are some points that are supposed to be checked by ship Supposed to be checked by Shore Suppose to be checked jointly by Ship and Shore For example, in the below section of ship-shore safety checklist, point 1 to 4 are supposed to be checked by both parties. Point 6 and 8 by the terminal and 5 & 7 by ship. Apart from this, there is one section "Code" which has one or more of these three codes A P R Code A Code A stands for "Agreement". For the checkpoints with Code A, it is not sufficient to just sign or tick the point. We need to have a written agreement for this point. For example, point 3 is The agreed ship-shore communication system is operative  For this point, it is not sufficient to write "yes". We need to write in remarks as to what communication system is being used and what is the backup communication system. For each point with Code "A", there needs to be more information about the agreement in the remarks column. Code P  Code P stands for "Permission". For the checklist points with Code P ", if the answer is "NO", the cargo operation cannot be started without permission from the port authorities. For example, if the ship's response to point no 21 is "NO" (which means ship's engine is not ready), the cargo operation cannot start without permission from port authorities. Code R Code R stands for Re-check. These are the items that need to be checked at regular interval.  For example, item 1 requires the vessel to check the Gangway and as this is a Code "R" item, the vessel needs to check the gangway at regular interval. Same goes for item 2 which requires the vessel to check the moorings. The interval of rechecking the code "R" items is agreed between the ship and shore during the initial meeting. Same is recorded in the declaration at the end of Ship-shore safety checklist.   

A: There is a formula for the height correction (also called DIP). With these formula, you can create a table of height correction by using different values of the height of eye.

A: There are no fixed rules on how to use CATZOC information. To know how we must use the CATZOC, we need to look into the navigation manual of the company and look for company specific information. Below are one of the most comprehensive instructions in the navigation manual of a company that I have come across.  The UKC available should be more than the CATZOC accuracy. Let us say the calculated maximum possible CATZOC error (based on the star rating of the ENC) is 2.0 meters. Now if the available UKC is more than 2.0 meters, vessel can proceed with the voyage. These instructions are based on the fact that the CATZOC error is the maximum error and not the definite error. So in the above example, CATZOC error can be any value between -2.0 meters to +2.0 meters. Even if at some place the error is at the maximum, the vessel will still be safe (though at that point vessel will not comply with the company's UKC policy). In these instructions CATZOC and UKC policy are taken as two separate subjects. Now let us say that available UKC is 1.9 meters as per UKC calculation sheet (without taking into account CATZOC value). The vessel complies with UKC policy of the company but now the possible maximum CATZOC error is more than the available UKC. In this case, vessel need to inform the company and take measures as defined by the company's navigation manual. These measures are Get the exact depth from the past experiences (like last time vessel passed that with similar or more draft). Get the exact depth from the agent, pilots or different nautical publications.   If information from these resources suggests that there was no error in the charted depth shown, then vessel can proceed with the voyage after written permission from the company. These are only one of the possible instructions related to the handling of CATZOC information. Your company could have different kind of instructions and you must follow the company's instructions. Now based on above instructions let us say that the UKC available in the dredged channel is 0.5 meters.  Minimum UKC required as per company policy is 0.4 meters. ZOC is 6 stars (A1) and depth of the dredged channel is 15 meters. In this case, the maximum possible CATZOC error will be 0.65 meters (0.5 + 1% of depth). In this case vessel need to take written permission from the company for proceeding with the voyage. Finally, the answer to your question is "yes, we need to consider the CATZOC value in the dredged channel too. But the procedure to consider the CATZOC value can differ from company to company and we must follow the instructions in the SMS manual of the company.  

A: Ship Broker is completely different profile from the sailing staff. Most of the ship brokers may never have sailed on a ship. The key skill required for a ship broker is the ability to negotiate and relationship building skills. Having said that, basic knowledge of ships and how the ships operate definately help when choosing to be a ship broker. Advanced knowledge of ships and ship handling is generally not required. So for seafarers looking for a job as a ship broker should ideally switch after sailing as 3rd mate or 2nd mate. 

A: eNOA need to be submitted at least 96 hours prior arrival if the voyage duration is more than 96 hours. But there is no limit mentioned for the earliest time that eNOA can be submitted. However it is understood that the earliest eNOA can be submitted is after departure from the previous port to the US arrival. Ideally if the time permits eNOA should be sent 6 days before arrival. Extra 2 days allows for correction in any kind of errors in submission of eNOA and not too many days before the deadline means that if the port changes, master would not need to go through the hassle of cancelling the eNOA.

A: VDR is a simple equipment. It records the data from the equipments that are connected to it. If it fails to record the data from any of the equipments, it will give an error with an error code. The error code can be checked from the list of errors to know the reason for the error. For example if we switch off the echo sounder, the VDR would give an error with an alarm. Even if there is an internal VDR error, there would still be an error with alarm. If there is no alarm on the VDR panel, it would mean that VDR is working properly.

A: Abort point is the point on the passage beyond which there is no sufficient sea room to turn back the vessel. When approaching or entering a port or procedding in a channel, the width of the channel may not be sufficent to turn the vessel.  The point where width of the channel becomes narrow enough that vessel cannot make a turn would be called Abort point. Point of no return is not related to the width of the channel or turning of the vessel. With "point of no return, there may be sufficient sea room to turn the vessel but the vessel cannot return to where it came from because the conditions have now changed. One example of "point of no return" is while proceeding in a river with falling tide. If the next port is changed or cancelled after passing the "point of no return" then vessel cannot return back because the tide now will be less than it was few hours earlier when vessel passed the same location. In this case vessel can turn and there is no issue with the turning back and may be anchoring. So it will not be called "Abort point" but it will be called "point of no return". For more detailed explaination read this blog. What is Abort Point and How You Can Use it For Safe Navigation

A: Back in 70's Chemical tanker was an alien subject. But carriage of chemicals through the ships was on the rise. IMO (IMCO at that time) felt a great need to develop procedures for the tankers to carry chemicals. But this was a tough task due to lack of studies on the carriage of chemicals. In 1971, IMO by its resolution A. 212(VII) adopted the BCH code, the compliance to which was only voluntary. In Resolution A. 212(VII), IMO agreed that there was a need of further review of the code based on further studies and experience. As per the future studies and experiences, the BCH code was modified as required but it was still voluntary for the ships to comply with the BCH code. On 17 July 1983, IMO adopted the more comprehensive code (IBC code) by IMO resolution MSC 4(48). The code was made mandatory by amendments to the SOLAS through IMO resolution MSC 6(48). The code was mandatory for ships constructed on or after 01 July 1986. At this time, the BCH code was still voluntary. IMO passed a resolution MSC 7(48) on the recommendation for chemical tankers constructed before 01 July 1986.  Now coming to the main question. Why IMO introduced a new code rather than modifying the existing code and making it mandatory? Imagine yourself as a ship owner who is operating chemical tanker built before 01 July 1986. Even though BCH code was voluntary, you were complying with the requirements of BCH code. Now imagine if the IMO modified the BCH code (with more strict requirements) and made it mandatory for ships built on or after 01 july 1986. You as a ship owner of chemical tankers built before 01 July 1986 would have no guidelines to comply with as the new BCH code would have strict guidelines that the existing chemical tankers cannot be modified to. In this case most of the chemical tankers built before 01 July 1986 which were voluntarily complying with the BCH code would have dumped the voluntary compliance with any guidelines as there would not have been any guidelines left. They could have partially complied with the new code but that is something no one would have done. So instead what IMO did was that they left the BCH code untouched and the chemical tankers built before 01 july 1986 continued the voluntary compliance with the BCH code. And IMO introduced the mandatory IBC code for the chemical tankers constructed after 01 July 1986. It was much later that the BCH code was made mandatory for chemical tankers built before 01 July 1986.  

A: Back in 70's Chemical tanker was an alien subject. But carriage of chemicals through the ships was on the rise. IMO (IMCO at that time) felt a great need to develop procedures for the tankers to carry chemicals. But this was a tough task due to lack of studies on the carriage of chemicals. In 1971, IMO by its resolution A. 212(VII) adopted the BCH code, the compliance to which was only voluntary. In Resolution A. 212(VII), IMO agreed that there was a need of further review of the code based on further studies and experience.

A: By new ship, I would assume yard delivery of a ship. In this case, the primary responsibility of the master would be to ensure that the ship is seaworthy. There are three areas that master needs to look for when ensuring the seaworthiness of the ship. to ensure that vessel is issued with all the statutory and mandatory certificates to ensure that the vessel is complying with the ISM code to ensure that the vessel is adequately manned Each company has a ship certificates checklist as part of SMS manuals. Master need to cross check with this checklist if all the certificates are on board before the vessel starts her maiden voyage. Although Initial "Safety management system certificate" and "International ship security certificate" will be issued by the flag (or classification society on behalf of the flag) after an initial assessment of the implementation of ISM and ISPS code, it is responsibility of the master to do his own assessment of the system before the maiden voyage. Lastly Master need to ensure that vessel is adequately manned for the voyage. This is done by ensuring vessel has a valid minimum safe manning certificate The number of crew onboard is more than that mentioned in the minimum safe manning certificate The number of crew onboard is sufficient for the trade of the vessel All crew members have valid STCW certificates and other certificates required by the company or third parties like SIRE This is the statutory part to ensure that the ship is seaworthy. But there are other things that a master need to ensure before setting the sail for ship's Maiden voyage. Crew Training Provision and supplies Crew training is the most important part. The system and equipments on board are new to all the crew members. Master need to ensure that navigating officers are well trained for the bridge equipments, layout, and the operation. Master must ensure that chief officer has trained the crew about the deck equipments and chief engineer has trained the engine room staff for the engine room operations and equipments. In the yard, it is required from the ship staff to ensure that operating instructions are posted near to the each of the machinery and equipments. Finally master needs to carry out drills and training for life-saving equipments and fire fighting equipments. At last, it is the duty of the master to ensure that the ship has sufficient provisions, fresh water, and other required supplies for the voyage. Any other important point I may have missed, feel free to point out. 

A: Bu new ship I would assume yard delivery of a ship. In this case the primary responsibility of the master would be to ensure that the ship is seaworthy. There are three areas that master need to look for when ensuring the seaworthiness of the ship. to ensure that vessel is issued with all the statutory and mandatory certificates to ensure that the vessel is complying with the ISM code to ensure that the vessel is adequately manned Each company has a ship certificates checklist as part of SMS manuals. Master need to cross check with this checklist if all the certificates are on board before the vessel starts her maiden voyage.

A: As you rightly said, BWM is an independent convention and there is no relation of any annex of the Marpol with the ballast water management, I do not think MARPOL will have any mention of the requirement of ballast water management plan. Correct me if you find any information otherwise.  

A: I have written two blogs on this subject. Here are the links to these blogs. How do we get ship’s position by star sight? How a Marine Sextant Helps in Getting Ship Position? Apart from these two blogs, you can use the sight calculator tool that we have developed.

A: Ship sanitation control exemption certificate certifies that the condition of sanitation is good on board the vessel. The certificate is issued by the port health. The certificate neither certifies anything related to flag of the vessel not it is issued by the flag of the vessel. So even if the flag of the vessel changes, it is not required to renew the ship sanitation control exemption certificate. In any case, the validity of the certificate is only 6 months and after 6 months it is required to be renewed anyway. 

A: IMO has developed guidelines for identification and designation of Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA). Once an area falls under this category and IMO puts this area in the category of PSSA, there are one of these measures that will be implemented according to nature of concern for that area that makes it a sensitive sea area. These measures are The area may be adopted as a special area under Marpol Annex I, II, V or VI. The designated PSSA may be marked as the "Area to be avoided" or routing measures may be implemented. So if there is any prohibition to dispose of food waste in the PSSA, that PSSA would be included as a special area in the MARPOL Annex V. One such example is the Baltic area which is a PSSA and has been included as a special area under MARPOL Annex V.   This means that for disposing of food waste in any areas including PSSA, all we need to do is follow MARPOL Annex V.  

A: In one word, Yes. It is required that the approved plans have the current ship's name and approval stamp of present calssification society. However, this may not be a serious observation if the previous classfication society and the present classification society are the member of IACS (internation association of classification societies). All the members of IACS follow similar classification rules and having the plans certified by previous classification society(also an IACS member) means that it complies with the applicable regulations. So when I say that it may not be a serious observation, I mean the vessel may not be detained for this observation but it will be an observation (PSC or other third party) nonetheless. Many time, during the change of class the class would have stamped few copies of these plan. And it may just be that the old copies are in use. We may want to check for that too. If class has not done that, company need to contact the class and look for a way forward. If annual class surveys are due in near future, these plan can be stamped by the class during that time including the correction for the change of name of vessel. Otherwise company can send few copies of all the plans to the class and get these approved with any corrections. 

A: Congradulations for having a clear view of what you want. It is very important to have a clear view. However while choosing the options for studies, it would be better if any and all the courses are choosen that are co-related. For example MBA in supply chain and logistics may not that well be related with PGD in Maritime law. If you are interested in Maritime law, focus on that. Choose the courses for higher studies related to maritime law and be an expert in maritime law. Target to complete LLM in Maritime law and if you still want to go a step higher, may be go for Phd in Maritime law. Similarly if you are interested in Supply chain and logistics, focus only on that area. With regard to your second question, if you should leave sailing or not. It is difficult to answer that in Yes or No. You need to look for various factors. Do you have enough money to sustain while doing your higher studies? Do you feel sailing any further will help you gain more knowledge related to the area of studies that you have planned? And few other similar questions. After doing a good assessment of all these factors, you may decide if it is better to quit sailing now or not. However just for MICS, I would not recommend quiting sailing. This is not a qualification but membership for ICS. The studies for this can best be done while sailing. All the best for your future and feel free to ask any question that you may have for your career development. 

A: You are confusing the term "Combustion" (Burning) with "Explosion". LEL is used to define if the gas concentration will explode if a source of ignition is provided. If the Gas concentration is below the 100% of LEL range (approx 1% of Volume for methane), it will not explode even when a source of igntion is provided. But as the gas mixture will still have small amount of flammable gas in it, it can burn if it is continuously passed through a heated surface. The extent of burning (or combustion) will depend upon the amount of flammable gas in the gas mixture. Explosimeter uses the principle of wheatstone bridge in which one resistor is in form of a heated element. The more it gets heated more resistance it will provide in the circuit. This will generated a current flow in the circuit which can be measured. In case of Explosimeter, the gas sample is passed through this heated element. More flammable gas (in term of % LEL) the sample has, more it will burn (not explode) and more heated the element will become.  As the resistance of other three resistors in the circuit is known and is fixed, the resistance for the fourth resistor (which varies as per the flammable gas concerntartion) and the current flow generated because of this imbalance of resistance in the circuit is calculated. The %LEL in the gas sample required for the generated current flow is shown in form of a reading on the explosimeter.   

A: The ship's mean draft will remain same. The load line zones are the areas that has been designated based on the weather conditions in those areas. If an area is under "Tropical Zone" it would generally mean that in this area the weather conditions are expected to be good and thus the vessel is allowed to have less freeboard (more draft) than the summer load line mark. But once the vessel has been loaded, the draft will not change just because of moving from one load line zone to another. The draft of the ship will only change if the density of the sea water changes. It will not change simply because ship travelled from one place to another. 

A: I suppose it is about the "Variable Immersion Hydrometer". Let me re-phrase it. The section in the book is talking about how the marking are made (Calculated) on the Hydrometer.  Hydrometer is made to float in fresh water at Bottom marking (X) and then at Upper marking (Y) by adding the weight to its bulb. Mx and My are the respective measured weights.  Now with weight of the Hydrometer being My, it is placed in water with unknown density (rho). We need to find this density which after calculation will be marked on the hydrometer. This is done in few steps. First the area of the Stem between point X and Y is calculated. Which is simply is Volume divided by Length (L). Next is to get the Volume of water displaced in this density. Now here comes the part of your confusion. Volume is also equal to the Weight divided by the density. But the important thing is to take care of the units. If we are measuring Volume in m3 and weight in Kg then density need to be Kg/m3. Or if the unit of the density is ton/m3 then the weight need to be in Tons which will give the volumes in m3 by this formula. For this excercise, Weight "My" is in Kilograms (Kgs), if we are using unit of the density as Tons/m3 then we need to convert "My" to tons which we can do by dividing it by 1000. That would have removed your confusion but I will complete the exercise for the sake of it. Comparing two equations for Volume of water displaced at density (rho). In this equation the only unknown values are the density and length (L). So for example if we want to know the position of marking on hydrometer for a particular density (say 1.010) then we can get the value of L and thus the position where this need to be marked on the hydrometer.  The main point to take home is that when dealing with ship stability always consider the units on both side of the equation. If considered, the confusion will not arise. 

A: I suppose it is about the "Variable Immersion Hydrometer". Let me re-phrase it. The section in the book is talking about how the marking are made (Calculated) on the Hydrometer.  Hydrometer is made to float in fresh water at Bottom marking (X) and then at Upper marking (Y) by adding the weight to its bulb. Mx and My are the respective measured weights.  Now with weight of the Hydrometer being My, it is placed in water with unknown density (rho). We need to find this density which after calculation will be marked on the hydrometer. This is done in few steps. First the area of the Stem between point X and Y is calculated. Which is simply is Volume divided by Length (L).

A: Accidental discharge of oil during bunkering does not take the ship out of business. But if the response after the spill is not correct, it would definately have the potential to not only take that particular vessel but the entire company out of the business. In this case the first priority is to contain the spill onboard and to clean up the spilled oil into the sea. While the spill onboard is contained & cleaned by the ship staff, the oil in the sea is cleaned by the shore clean up parties. In US, this is done by OSRO (Oil spill response organisation) and in China this is done by SPRO which are contracted by the company as per the local requirements. So in US, master just need to inform the QI (Qualified Individual) and in China to the SPRO contact and they will take care of the clean up operation for the oil spilled to the sea. Master also need to inform to the port suthorities (e.g. Harbour Master) through agent. Master may have to call the P&I club after discussion with the company. After the investigation from the port and clearance to resume the bunkering operation, the bunkering can be completed and vessel can resume its voyage. Now where do superintendent's actions fit in all this? On receiving the call from master about spill of bunker into the sea, the first thing superintendent need to do is to calm down the Master who would most likely be under extreme stress. Start by asking, "is anyone hurt or are everyone safe"? After taking a brief of the situation, ask the master to send the Initial Situation report (usually company form or in US as per VRP). Superintendent then need to set up emergency response team in the office as per the company procedures. Next ensure that Master has informed the required parties such as QI in US or SPRO in China. For other countries Superintendent may need to arrange the spill clean up company for the clean up operation. If not forwarded by Master, Superintendent need to formward the initial situation report to the vessel's owners / Charterers.  Superintendent need to instruct Master to contact the P&I club (if required) for arranging a surveyor as there may be claims of short bunker supplied. In short, the job of the superintendent would be to coordinate the notification process to all the third parties and arrange the clean up party if it is not contracted as per the local requirements. Once the clean up operation is complete both onboard and oil spill at sea, Superintendent need to start the incident investigation to find out the root cause, corrective actions and preventive actions for the incident.

A: Solving the ROR situations given in the Videotel requires a bit of analytic skills. Let us solve few of these situations with few examples. Here is one of the example how the Radar screen will be given in the question. The question will be: What will be the closest point of approach of taregt A? A. Between 3 to 4 Miles B. Between 4 to 5 miles C. Less than 0.9 mile D. Between 1 to 2 miles  In these situations we need to imagine the effect of reducing or increasing the vector length to find the approx CPA. In the above example, If we reduce the own vector as well as target vector proportionally, we would find that both the vectors would approximately meet at their ends. This means that the CPA would be close to 0 which means that the correct answer would be "CPA less than 0.9 mile". Let us say there is another question for the same situation asking the time to closest point of approach. Again, as we have seen that after reducing the vector time, the CPA will be approximately zero and close to this point below As each ring is 4NM, so the TCPA will be when own ship has covered approx 4NM. The ship's speed is 12 Knots. So to cover 4NM with 12 knots speed would take 20 minutes. In this case we need to choose the answer that shows the TCPA close to 20 minutes. Now try to find the CPA and TCPA for the below situation    If you imagine to increase the vectors proportionately, you will find that the CPA would be close to 0 in this case. TCPA would occur close to the 2nd ring which mean after covering a distance of 8NM. With speed of 12NM, it would take 45 minutes to cover 8NM distance. So TCPA would be around 45 minutes. When solving these kind of situations, we need to keep in mind the following information If the vector is true vector or relative vector What is the vector time Each range ring is how many miles Own vessel's speed. If you have doubt about any other situation, feel free to send the image or screenshot to support@myseatime.com and I will include that in this answer too.

A: Here is a detailed article on ASTM tables and its use. Cargo Calculations on Tankers with ASTM Tables: Here is all you need to know Hope it will help.

A: Following markings are required to be there on ship's hull. 1. Ship's Name This is for the obvious reasons.

A: Here is a blog that I have written on this subject. I hope you find the answer to your queries in this blog.